Sony BDV-E780W User Manual

Page 5

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5

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 usually
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 effectively
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 actual
functions of the Library.) The hope is that this will lead
to faster development of free libraries.

The precise terms and conditions for copying,
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the library" and a "work that uses the library". The
former contains 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.

GNU LIBRARY GENERAL PUBLIC
LICENSE TERMS AND CONDITIONS
FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND
MODIFICATION

0.

This License Agreement applies to any software
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