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Appendix E Open Source Licences
Media Server User’s Guide
438
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.
GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE 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