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47
EN
12. 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 PROGRAM
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
PROGRAM (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 PROGRAM TO OPERATE
WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH
HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF
THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Appendix L – GNU LGPL 2.1
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 fi rst 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 fi rst 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 fi les 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 modifi ed 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 specifi ed 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 fi ts 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