Filter
Top Products
19
GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2.1, February 1999
Copyright © 1991, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston,
MA 02110-1301 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document,
but changing it is not allowed. [This is the 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 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 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 modied 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