MONTAGE Gebruikershandleiding
68
GNU LESSER GENER AL PUBLIC LICENSE
V ersion 2.1, February 1999
Copyright © 1991, 1999 Free Softwar e Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Str eet, Fifth Floor , Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distr ibute verbatim copies of this license documen t, but changing it is not allowed.
[This is the first r eleased version of the Lesser GPL.
It also counts as the successor of t he GNU Library Public License, version 2, hence the version number 2.1.]
P reambl e
The licenses for most so ftware are designe d to take away your fr eedom to
share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public Licenses are
intended to guarantee your fr eedom to share and change fr ee software—
to make sure the s oftware is free for all its users.
This license, the Lesser Genera l Public License, applies to some specially
designated software packages—typically libraries—of the Free Softwar e
Foundation and othe r authors who decide to use it. Y ou can use it too, but
we suggest you first think caref ully about whether this license or the
ordinary General Public License is the better strategy to use in any
particular case, based on the explanations below .
When we speak of free soft ware, we are r eferring to fr eedom of use, not
price. Our Gener al Public Licenses are design ed to make sure that you
have the fr eedom to distribute c opies of free soft ware (and charge for th is
service if yo u wish); that you r eceive sour ce code or can get it if you want
it; that you can change the softwa re and use pieces of it in new free
programs; and th at you are informed that you can do these things.
T o protect yo ur rights, we need t o make restriction s that forbid distributors
to deny you these rights or to ask you to surr ender these rights. These
restr ictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distr ibute
copies of the library or if you modify it.
For example, if you distr ibute copies of the library , wheth er gratis or for a
fee, you must give the r ecipients all the rights that we gave you. Y ou must
make sure that they , too , receive or can get the source code. If you link
other code with the libr ary , you must provide co mplete ob ject files to th e
recipients, so that they can relink them with the library after making
changes to the library and r ecompiling it. And you must show them these
terms s o they know their rights.
We pr otect your rights with a two-step method: (1) we copyr ight the
library , and (2 ) we offer you this license, which gives you legal permission
to copy , distribute an d/or modify the library .
T o protect each di stributor , we want to make it very clear that ther e is no
warranty for the fr ee library . Also, if the library is modified by someone
else and passed on, the re cipients should know that what they have is not
the original version, so that the original author's reputation will not be
affected by pr oblems that might be intr oduced by others.
Finally , software patents pose a constant thr eat to the existence of any
free pr ogram. We wish to make sure that a company cannot effectively
restr ict the users of a free progra m by obtaining a restrict ive license from
a patent holder . Therefore , we insist that any patent license obtained for a
version of the library must be consistent with the full fr eedom of use
specified in this license.
Most GNU softwar e, including some librar ies, is covered by t he ordinary
GNU General Public L icense. This license, the GNU Lesser Gener al
Public License, applies to certain designated libraries, and is quite
differ ent from the or dinary General Public License. We use t his license for
certain libraries in or der to permit linking those libraries into non-fr ee
programs.
When a program is linked with a library , whether statically or using a
shared library , the combination of the two is legally speaking a combined
work, a derivati ve of the original library . The ordinary General Public
License ther efore permits such linking only if t he entire combination fi ts its
criter ia of freedom. The Lesser Gener al Public License permits more lax
criter ia for linking other code with the library .
We call this license t he “Lesser” General Public Licen se because it does
Less to pr otect the user’ s freedom than the or dinary General Public
License. It also pr ovides other free softwar e developers Less of an
advantage over competing non-fre e programs. These disadvantages ar e
the reason we use the ordinary General Public License for many librar ies.
However , the Lesser license provides advantages in certain special
circumstanc es.
For example, on rare occasions, there may be a special need to
encourage the widest possible use of a certain library , so that it becomes
a de-facto standar d. T o achieve this, non-fre e programs must be allowed
to use the l ibrary . A mo re frequent case is that a fr ee library does the
same job as widely used non-free librar ies. In this case, ther e is little to
gain by limiting the free librar y to free software only , so we use the Lesser
General Public License.
In other cases, permission to use a particular library in non-free pr ograms
enables a greater number of people to use a large body of fr ee software.
For example, permission to use the GNU C Library in non-free programs
enables many more people to use the whole GNU operating system, as
well as its variant, the GNU/ Linux operating system.
Although the Lesser General Public Lic ense is Less protective of the
users’ fre edom, it does ensur e that the user of a program that is linked
with the Library has the freedom and the wher ewithal to run that program
using a modified version of the Library .
The preci se terms and conditions for copyi ng, distribution and
modification f ollow . Pay close attentio n to the differ ence between a “work
based on the library” and a “work that uses the library”. The former
contains code derived f rom the library , whereas the latt er must be
combined with the library in order to run.
GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC
LICENSE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR
COP YING, DISTRIB UTION AND
MODIFIC A TION
0. This License Agr eement applies to any softwar e library or other
program which contains a notice placed by the copyright ho lder or
other author ized party saying it may be distribute d under the terms of
this Lesser General Public License (also called “this License”). Each
licensee is addressed as “you”.
A “library” means a collection of software fun ctions and/or data
prepar ed so as to be conveniently linked with application programs
(which use some of those funct ions and data) to form executables.
The “Library”, below , ref ers to any such software library or work which
has been distributed under th ese ter ms. A “work based on the
Library” means eithe r the Library or any der ivative work under
copyright law: that is to say , a work containing the Library or a portion
of it, either verbatim or with modifica tions and/or translated
straightforwar dly into another language. (Hereinaft er , transla tion is
included without li mitation in the term “mo dification”.)
“Source code” for a work means the preferred f orm of the work for
making modifications to it. For a library , complete source code
means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
associated interface defini tion files, plus the scripts used to cont rol
compilation and installation of the library .
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification ar e not
covered by th is License; they are outside its scope. The act of
running a pr ogram using the Library is not restr icted, and output fr om
such a pro gram is covered only if its contents constitute a work
based on the Library (independent of the use of the Library in a tool
for writi ng it). Whether that is true depends on what the Library does
and what the program th at uses the Library does.
1. Y ou may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Libr ary’ s
complete sour ce code as you receive it, i n any medium, provided
that you conspicuously and appr opriately publish on each copy an
appropr iate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact
all the notic es that refer to this License an d to the absence of an y
warranty; and distri bute a copy of this License along with the Library .
Y ou may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy , and
you may at your option offer warra nty protection in exchange for a
fee.
2. Y ou may modify your copy or copies of the Library or any portion of it,
thus forming a work based on the Library , and copy and distribute
such modifications o r work under the terms of Section 1 above,
provided t hat you also meet all of these conditions:
a) The modified work must itself be a software library .
b) Y ou must cause the files modified to carry prominent notices
stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
c) Y ou must cause the whole of the work to be licensed at no charge
to all thir d parties under the terms of this Lic ense.
d) If a facility in the modified Library refers to a function or a table of
data to be supplie d by an application progra m that uses the
facility , other than as an argument passed when the facility is
invoked, then you must ma ke a good faith ef fort to ensure t hat, in
the event an application does not supply such functi on or table,