1 What this legalese means is basically two things:
3 1) There is NO WARRANTY
4 2) You are free to copy and modify this program as long as you do
5 not impose more restrictive terms on its copying.
9 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
10 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
14 Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place -
15 Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
17 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
18 license document, but changing it is not allowed.
22 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom
23 to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is
24 intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to
25 make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public
26 License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and
27 to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free
28 Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public
29 License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.
31 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
32 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
33 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
34 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
35 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in
36 new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
38 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone
39 to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These
40 restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
41 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
43 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or
44 for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You
45 must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And
46 you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
48 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
49 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
50 distribute and/or modify the software.
52 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
53 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
54 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on,
55 we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original,
56 so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
59 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
60 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
61 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
62 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
63 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
65 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
68 TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
70 0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
71 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
72 under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below,
73 refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
74 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
75 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either
76 verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language.
77 (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term
78 "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".
80 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
81 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running
82 the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered
83 only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent
84 of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends
85 on what the Program does.
87 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source
88 code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously
89 and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice
90 and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to
91 this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other
92 recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.
94 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
95 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
97 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
98 it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute
99 such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided
100 that you also meet all of these conditions:
102 a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
103 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
105 b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
106 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part
107 thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties
108 under the terms of this License.
110 c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when
111 run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive
112 use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement
113 including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there
114 is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and
115 that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and
116 telling the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if
117 the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such
118 an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to
119 print an announcement.)
121 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable
122 sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be
123 reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves,
124 then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when
125 you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same
126 sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the
127 distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose
128 permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to
129 each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
131 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your
132 rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise
133 the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works
134 based on the Program.
136 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
137 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a
138 storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the
139 scope of this License.
141 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
142 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
143 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
145 a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
146 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1
147 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
149 b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years,
150 to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of
151 physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable
152 copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the
153 terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for
154 software interchange; or,
156 c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to
157 distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed
158 only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the
159 program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in
160 accord with Subsection b above.)
162 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making
163 modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means
164 all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated
165 interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation
166 and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception,
167 the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally
168 distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components
169 (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the
170 executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
172 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access
173 to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to
174 copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the
175 source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the
176 source along with the object code.
178 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
179 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise
180 to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will
181 automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties
182 who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will
183 not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in
186 5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed
187 it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute
188 the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited
189 by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or
190 distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate
191 your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions
192 for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.
194 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
195 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
196 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
197 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions
198 on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not
199 responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.
201 7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
202 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
203 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
204 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
205 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute
206 so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License
207 and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not
208 distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would
209 not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who
210 receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you
211 could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from
212 distribution of the Program.
214 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any
215 particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply
216 and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.
218 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
219 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such
220 claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of
221 the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public
222 license practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the
223 wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on
224 consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to
225 decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other
226 system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.
228 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
229 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
231 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain
232 countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original
233 copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an
234 explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries,
235 so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus
236 excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if
237 written in the body of this License.
239 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
240 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
241 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail
242 to address new problems or concerns.
244 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
245 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and
246 "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and
247 conditions either of that version or of any later version published by
248 the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version
249 number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by
250 the Free Software Foundation.
252 10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
253 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
254 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
255 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
256 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
257 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software
258 and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
262 11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
263 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
264 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
265 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
266 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
267 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK
268 AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
269 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
270 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
272 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
273 WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY
274 AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU
275 FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL
276 DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING
277 BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR
278 LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM
279 TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY
280 HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
282 END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
284 How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
286 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
287 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
288 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
291 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
292 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
293 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the
294 "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
296 one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.
297 Copyright (C) 19yy name of author
299 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
300 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
301 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
302 option) any later version.
304 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
305 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
306 or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
309 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
310 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
311 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
313 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
315 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
316 when it starts in an interactive mode:
318 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author Gnomovision
319 comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'. This is
320 free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
321 conditions; type `show c' for details.
323 The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the
324 appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands
325 you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they
326 could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
328 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
329 your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
330 if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
332 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
333 `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
335 signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989 Ty Coon, President of Vice
337 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program
338 into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you
339 may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications
340 with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library
341 General Public License instead of this License.
343 Return to GNU's home page.
345 FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu@gnu.org. Other ways to contact
348 Comments on these web pages to webmasters@www.gnu.org, send other
349 questions to gnu@gnu.org.
351 Copyright notice above. Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place -
352 Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA
354 Updated: 16 Feb 1998 tower