32 english – Toshiba BDX2250 User Manual

Page 32

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32

English

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away

your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU

General Public Licenses 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 specially 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 object

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 permission 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 reputation

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 effectively 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 ordinary GNU General Public Li-

cense. This license, the GNU Lesser General Public

License, applies to certain designated libraries, and

is quite different from the ordinary General Pub-

lic 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 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 PULIC 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

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

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