ZyXEL Communications 200 Series User Manual page 857

Appendix F Open Software Announcements
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.
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 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
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ZyWALL USG 100/200 Series User's Guide