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GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2.1, February 1 999
Copyright (C) 1991, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, 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 first 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 free-
dom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public Li-
censes 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 spe-
cially 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 first 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 ob-
ject files 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 permis-
sion 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 modified 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 rep-
utation 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 ef-
fectively 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 specified in this license.
Most GNU software, including some libraries, is covered by the ordi-
nary 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
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