Licence

GNU Lesser General Public License
Version 2.1, February 1999
Copyright (C) 1991, 1999 Free Software
Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute
verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it
is not allowed.
[This is the first released version
of the Lesser GPL. It also counts as the successor of the
GNU Library Public License, version 2, hence the version
number 2.1.]
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed
to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast,
the GNU General Public Licenses are intended to guarantee
your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure
the software is free for all its users.
This license, the Lesser General Public
License, applies to some specially designated software packages--typically
libraries--of the Free Software Foundation and other authors
who decide to use it. You can use it too, but we suggest you
first think carefully 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 software, we are
referring to freedom of use, not price. Our General Public
Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom
to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this
service if you wish); that you receive source code or can
get it if you want it; that you can change the software and
use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you are informed
that you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make
restrictions that forbid distributors to deny you these rights
or to ask you to surrender these rights. These restrictions
translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute
copies of the library or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies
of the library, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give
the recipients all the rights that we gave you. You must make
sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. If
you link other code with the library, you must provide complete
object files to the recipients, so that they can relink them
with the library after making changes to the library and recompiling
it. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.
We protect your rights with a two-step
method: (1) we copyright the library, and (2) we offer you
this license, which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute
and/or modify the library.
To protect each distributor, we want to
make it very clear that there is no warranty for the free
library. Also, if the library is modified by someone else
and passed on, the recipients should know that what they have
is not the original version, so that the original author's
reputation will not be affected by problems that might be
introduced by others.
Finally, software patents pose a constant
threat to the existence of any free program. We wish to make
sure that a company cannot effectively restrict the users
of a free program by obtaining a restrictive 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 freedom of use specified in this license.
Most GNU software, including some libraries,
is covered by the ordinary GNU General Public License. This
license, the GNU Lesser General Public License, applies to
certain designated libraries, and is quite different from
the ordinary General Public License. We use this license for
certain libraries in order to permit linking those libraries
into non-free 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 derivative
of the original library. The ordinary General Public License
therefore permits such linking only if the entire combination
fits its criteria of freedom. The Lesser General Public License
permits more lax criteria for linking other code with the
library.
We call this license the "Lesser" General
Public License because it does Less to protect the user's
freedom than the ordinary General Public License. It also
provides other free software developers Less of an advantage
over competing non-free programs. These disadvantages are
the reason we use the ordinary General Public License for
many libraries. However, the Lesser license provides advantages
in certain special circumstances.
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 standard.
To achieve this, non-free programs must be allowed to use
the library. A more frequent case is that a free library does
the same job as widely used non-free libraries. In this case,
there is little to gain by limiting the free library to free
software only, so we use the Lesser General Public License.
In other cases, permission to use a particular
library in non-free programs enables a greater number of people
to use a large body of free 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 License
is Less protective of the users' freedom, it does ensure that
the user of a program that is linked with the Library has
the freedom and the wherewithal to run that program using
a modified version of the Library.
The precise terms and conditions for copying,
distribution and modification follow. Pay close attention
to the difference between a "work based on the library" and
a "work that uses the library". The former contains code derived
from the library, whereas the latter must be combined with
the library in order to run.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION
AND MODIFICATION
0. This License Agreement
applies to any software library or other program which contains
a notice placed by the copyright holder or other authorized
party saying it may be distributed 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
functions and/or data prepared so as to be conveniently linked
with application programs (which use some of those functions
and data) to form executables.
The "Library", below, refers to any such
software library or work which has been distributed under
these terms. A "work based on the Library" means either the
Library or any derivative work under copyright law: that is
to say, a work containing the Library or a portion of it,
either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated straightforwardly
into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is included
without limitation in the term "modification".)
"Source code"
for a work means the preferred form 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 definition files, plus the scripts used
to control compilation and installation of the library.
Activities other than copying, distribution
and modification are not covered by this License; they are
outside its scope. The act of running a program using the
Library is not restricted, and output from such a program
is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on
the Library (independent of the use of the Library in a tool
for writing it). Whether that is true depends on what the
Library does and what the program that uses the Library does.
1. You may copy and distribute
verbatim copies of the Library's complete source code as you
receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously
and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright
notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices
that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
and distribute a copy of this License along with the Library.
You may charge a fee for the physical
act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer
warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
2. You 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 or work under the terms of Section 1 above,
provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
a) The modified work must itself be
a software library.
b) You must cause the files modified
to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the
files and the date of any change.
c) You must cause the whole of the work
to be licensed at no charge to all third parties under the
terms of this License.
d) If a facility in the modified Library
refers to a function or a table of data to be supplied by
an application program that uses the facility, other than
as an argument passed when the facility is invoked, then
you must make a good faith effort to ensure that, in the
event an application does not supply such function or table,
the facility still operates, and performs whatever part
of its purpose remains meaningful.
(For example, a function in a library
to compute square roots has a purpose that is entirely well-defined
independent of the application. Therefore, Subsection 2d
requires that any application-supplied function or table
used by this function must be optional: if the application
does not supply it, the square root function must still
compute square roots.)
These requirements apply to the modified
work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are
not derived from the Library, and can be reasonably considered
independent and separate works in themselves, then this
License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when
you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute
the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Library, the distribution of the whole must be on
the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees
extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part
regardless of who wrote it.
Thus, it is not the intent of this section
to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely
by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control
the distribution of derivative or collective works based
on the Library.
In addition, mere aggregation of another
work not based on the Library with the Library (or with
a work based on the Library) on a volume of a storage or
distribution medium does not bring the other work under
the scope of this License.
3. You may opt to apply
the terms of the ordinary GNU General Public License instead
of this License to a given copy of the Library. To do this,
you must alter all the notices that refer to this License,
so that they refer to the ordinary GNU General Public License,
version 2, instead of to this License. (If a newer version
than version 2 of the ordinary GNU General Public License
has appeared, then you can specify that version instead if
you wish.) Do not make any other change in these notices.
Once this change is made in a given copy,
it is irreversible for that copy, so the ordinary GNU General
Public License applies to all subsequent copies and derivative
works made from that copy.
This option is useful when you wish to
copy part of the code of the Library into a program that is
not a library.
4. You may copy and distribute
the Library (or a portion or derivative of it, under Section
2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections
1 and 2 above provided that you accompany it with the complete
corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a
medium customarily used for software interchange.
If distribution of object code is made
by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering
equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place
satisfies the requirement to distribute the source code, even
though third parties are not compelled to copy the source
along with the object code.
5. A program that contains
no derivative of any portion of the Library, but is designed
to work with the Library by being compiled or linked with
it, is called a "work that uses the Library". Such a work,
in isolation, is not a derivative work of the Library, and
therefore falls outside the scope of this License.
However, linking a "work that uses the
Library" with the Library creates an executable that is a
derivative of the Library (because it contains portions of
the Library), rather than a "work that uses the library".
The executable is therefore covered by this License. Section
6 states terms for distribution of such executables.
When a "work that uses the Library" uses
material from a header file that is part of the Library, the
object code for the work may be a derivative work of the Library
even though the source code is not. Whether this is true is
especially significant if the work can be linked without the
Library, or if the work is itself a library. The threshold
for this to be true is not precisely defined by law.
If such an object file uses only numerical
parameters, data structure layouts and accessors, and small
macros and small inline functions (ten lines or less in length),
then the use of the object file is unrestricted, regardless
of whether it is legally a derivative work. (Executables containing
this object code plus portions of the Library will still fall
under Section 6.)
Otherwise, if the work is a derivative
of the Library, you may distribute the object code for the
work under the terms of Section 6. Any executables containing
that work also fall under Section 6, whether or not they are
linked directly with the Library itself.
6. As an exception to
the Sections above, you may also combine or link a "work that
uses the Library" with the Library to produce a work containing
portions of the Library, and distribute that work under terms
of your choice, provided that the terms permit modification
of the work for the customer's own use and reverse engineering
for debugging such modifications.
You must give prominent notice with each
copy of the work that the Library is used in it and that the
Library and its use are covered by this License. You must
supply a copy of this License. If the work during execution
displays copyright notices, you must include the copyright
notice for the Library among them, as well as a reference
directing the user to the copy of this License. Also, you
must do one of these things:
a) Accompany the work with the complete
corresponding machine-readable source code for the Library
including whatever changes were used in the work (which
must be distributed under Sections 1 and 2 above); and,
if the work is an executable linked with the Library, with
the complete machine-readable "work that uses the Library",
as object code and/or source code, so that the user can
modify the Library and then relink to produce a modified
executable containing the modified Library. (It is understood
that the user who changes the contents of definitions files
in the Library will not necessarily be able to recompile
the application to use the modified definitions.)
b) Use a suitable shared library mechanism
for linking with the Library. A suitable mechanism is one
that (1) uses at run time a copy of the library already
present on the user's computer system, rather than copying
library functions into the executable, and (2) will operate
properly with a modified version of the library, if the
user installs one, as long as the modified version is interface-compatible
with the version that the work was made with.
c) Accompany the work with a written
offer, valid for at least three years, to give the same
user the materials specified in Subsection 6a, above, for
a charge no more than the cost of performing this distribution.
d) If distribution of the work is made
by offering access to copy from a designated place, offer
equivalent access to copy the above specified materials
from the same place.
e) Verify that the user has already
received a copy of these materials or that you have already
sent this user a copy.
For an executable, the required form of
the "work that uses the Library" must include any data and
utility programs needed for reproducing the executable from
it. However, as a special exception, the materials to be distributed
need not include anything that is normally distributed (in
either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler,
kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable
runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
It may happen that this requirement contradicts
the license restrictions of other proprietary
libraries that do not normally accompany
the operating system. Such a contradiction means you cannot
use both them and the Library together in an executable that
you distribute.
7. You may place library
facilities that are a work based on the Library side-by-side
in a single library together with other library facilities
not covered by this License, and distribute such a combined
library, provided that the separate distribution of the work
based on the Library and of the other library facilities is
otherwise permitted, and provided that you do these two things:
a) Accompany the combined library with
a copy of the same work based on the Library, uncombined
with any other library facilities. This must be distributed
under the terms of the Sections above.
b) Give prominent notice with the combined
library of the fact that part of it is a work based on the
Library, and explaining where to find the accompanying uncombined
form of the same work.
8. You may not copy,
modify, sublicense, link with, or distribute the Library except
as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise
to copy, modify, sublicense, link with, or distribute the
Library is void, and will automatically terminate your rights
under this License.
However, parties who have received copies,
or rights, from you under this License will not have their
licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full
compliance.
9.
You are not required to accept this License, since you have
not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission
to modify or distribute the Library or its derivative works.
These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this
License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Library
(or any work based on the Library), you indicate your acceptance
of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions
for copying, distributing or modifying the Library or works
based on it.
10.
Each time you redistribute the Library (or any work based
on the Library), the recipient automatically receives a license
from the original licensor to copy, distribute, link with
or modify the Library subject to these terms and conditions.
You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients'
exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible
for enforcing compliance by third parties with this License.
11. If, as a consequence
of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or
for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions
are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise)
that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations
under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then
as a consequence you may not distribute the Library at all.
For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free
redistribution of the Library by all those who receive copies
directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you
could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain
entirely from distribution of the Library.
If any portion of this section is held
invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance,
the balance of the section is intended to apply, and the section
as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.
It is not the purpose of this section
to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right
claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section
has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free
software distribution system which is implemented by public
license practices. Many people have made generous contributions
to the wide range of software distributed through that system
in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is
up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to
distribute software through any other system and a licensee
cannot impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly
clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of
this License.
12.
If the distribution and/or use of the Library is restricted
in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces,
the original copyright holder who places the Library under
this License may add an explicit geographical distribution
limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution
is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded.
In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as
if written in the body of this License.
13.
The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new
versions of the Lesser General Public License from time to
time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present
version, but may differ in detail to address new problems
or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing
version number. If the Library specifies a version number
of this License which applies to it and "any later version",
you have the option of following the terms and conditions
either of that version or of any later version published by
the Free Software Foundation. If the Library does not specify
a license version number, you may choose any version ever
published by the Free Software Foundation.
14.
If you wish to incorporate parts of the Library into other
free programs whose distribution conditions are incompatible
with these, write to the author to ask for permission. For
software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation,
write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions
for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of
preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free
software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software
generally.
NO WARRANTY
15.
BECAUSE THE LIBRARY IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE
IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE LIBRARY, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY
APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE LIBRARY
"AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE
ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE LIBRARY
IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE LIBRARY PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME
THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
16.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO
IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO
MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE LIBRARY AS PERMITTED ABOVE,
BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE
OR INABILITY TO USE THE LIBRARY (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES
SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE LIBRARY
TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR
OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New
Libraries
If you develop a new library, and you
want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public,
we recommend making it free software that everyone can redistribute
and change. You can do so by permitting redistribution under
these terms (or, alternatively, under the terms of the ordinary
General Public License).
To apply these terms, attach the following
notices to the library. It is safest to attach them to the
start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion
of warranty; and each file should have at least the "copyright"
line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one
line to give the library's name and an idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This library is free software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License,
or (at your option) any later version.
This library is distributed in the hope
that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without
even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public
License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the
GNU Lesser General Public License along with this library;
if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Also add information on how to contact
you by electronic and paper mail.
You should also get your employer (if
you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign
a "copyright disclaimer" for the library, if necessary. Here
is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc.,
hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the library `Frob'
(a library for tweaking knobs) written by James Random Hacker.
signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1990
Ty Coon, President of Vice
That's all there is to it! |