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We protect your rights with a two-step method: (1)
we copyright the library, and (2) we offer you this
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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,
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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
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we insist that any patent license obtained for a
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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.
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
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To protect your rights, we need to make
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these rights or to ask you to surrender these
rights. These restrictions translate to certain
responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of
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OPEN SOURCE LICENSE