surrender these rights. These restrictions translate to certain

We call this license the “Lesser” General Public License

responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the library

because it does Less to protect the user’s freedom than the

or if you modify it.

ordinary General Public License. It also provides other free

For example, if you distribute copies of the library, whether

software developers Less of an advantage over competing

gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights

non-free programs. These disadvantages are the reason we

that we gave you. You must make sure that they, too,

use the ordinary General Public License for many libraries.

receive or can get the source code. If you link other code

However, the Lesser license provides advantages in certain

with the library, you must provide complete object files to the

special circumstances.

recipients, so that they can relink them with the library after

For example, on rare occasions, there may be a special need

making changes to the library and recompiling it. And you

to encourage the widest possible use of a certain library, so

must show them these terms so they know their rights.

that it becomes a de-facto standard. To achieve this, non-

We protect your rights with a two-step method: (1) we copyright

free programs must be allowed to use the library. A more

the library, and (2) we offer you this license, which gives you

frequent case is that a free library does the same job as

legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the library.

widely used non-free libraries. In this case, there is little to

gain by limiting the free library to free software only, so we

To protect each distributor, we want to make it very clear that

use the Lesser General Public License.

there is no warranty for the free library. Also, if the library is

In other cases, permission to use a particular library in non-

modified by someone else and passed on, the recipients

should know that what they have is not the original version,

free programs enables a greater number of people to use a

so that the original author’s reputation will not be affected by

large body of free software. For example, permission to use

problems that might be introduced by others.

the GNU C Library in non-free programs enables many more

people to use the whole GNU operating system, as well as

Finally, software patents pose a constant threat to the existence

its variant, the GNU/Linux operating system.

of any free program. We wish to make sure that a company

Although the Lesser General Public License is Less

cannot effectively restrict the users of a free program by

obtaining a restrictive license from a patent holder. Therefore,

protective of the users’ freedom, it does ensure that the user

we insist that any patent license obtained for a version of the

of a program that is linked with the Library has the freedom

library must be consistent with the full freedom of use specified

and the wherewithal to run that program using a modified

in this license.

version of the Library.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and

Most GNU software, including some libraries, is covered by the

ordinary GNU General Public License. This license, the GNU

modification follow. Pay close attention to the difference between

Lesser General Public License, applies to certain designated

a “work based on the library” and a “work that uses the library”.

libraries, and is quite different from the ordinary General Public

The former contains code derived from the library, whereas the

License. We use this license for certain libraries in order to

latter must be combined with the library in order to run.

permit linking those libraries into non-free programs.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING,

When a program is linked with a library, whether statically or

DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

using a shared library, the combination of the two is legally

0. This License Agreement applies to any software library or

speaking a combined work, a derivative of the original library.

other program which contains a notice placed by the copyright

The ordinary General Public License therefore permits

holder or other authorized party saying it may be distributed

such linking only if the entire combination fits its criteria of

under the terms of this Lesser General Public License (also

freedom. The Lesser General Public License permits more

called “this License”). Each licensee is addressed as “you”.

lax criteria for linking other code with the library.

 

Page 94
Image 94
Samsung YP-Q2AB/AAW manual Or if you modify it, That we gave you. You must make sure that they, too, Special circumstances