VEGA MoRoS Modem - ISDN 1.3 User Manual

Page 69

Advertising
background image

MoRoS Modem - ISDN 1.3

Licenses

69

companies distributing free software will individually obtain patent licenses, thus in effect transforming
the program into proprietary software. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be
licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

Most GNU software, including some libraries, is covered by the ordinary GNU General Public License,
which was designed for utility programs. This license, the GNU Library General Public License, applies to
certain designated libraries. This license is quite different from the ordinary one; be sure to read it in full,
and don't assume that anything in it is the same as in the ordinary license.

The reason we have a separate public license for some libraries is that they blur the distinction we usu-
ally make between modifying or adding to a program and simply using it. Linking a program with a library,
without changing the library, is in some sense simply using the library, and is analogous to running a
utility program or application program. However, in a textual and legal sense, the linked executable is a
combined work, a derivative of the original library, and the ordinary General Public License treats it as
such.

Because of this blurred distinction, using the ordinary General Public License for libraries did not effec-
tively promote software sharing, because most developers did not use the libraries. We concluded that
weaker conditions might promote sharing better.

However, unrestricted linking of non-free programs would deprive the users of those programs of all
benefit from the free status of the libraries themselves. This Library General Public License is intended to
permit developers of non-free programs to use free libraries, while preserving your freedom as a user of
such programs to change the free libraries that are incorporated in them. (We have not seen how to
achieve this as regards changes in header files, but we have achieved it as regards changes in the ac-
tual functions of the Library.) The hope is that this will lead to faster development of free libraries.

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 con-
tains code derived from the library, while the latter only works together with the library.

Note that it is possible for a library to be covered by the ordinary General Public License rather than by
this special one.


TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0. This License Agreement applies to any software library which contains a notice placed by the copy-
right holder or other authorized party saying it may be distributed under the terms of this Library 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 li-
brary, 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 out-
side 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 Library.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer war-
ranty protection in exchange for a fee.

2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Library or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on
the Library, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, pro-
vided that you also meet all of these conditions:

Advertising