PCTV Systems Broadway 2T - Page 88

PCTV Systems – Broadway 2T
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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ve
ry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
prob
lems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prog rambyobtainingare strictivelicensefromapatentholder.
Therefore,weins
i
st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License.Thislicense,theGNULesserGeneral
PublicLicense,appliestocertaindesi
gnated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shared
library,thecombinationofthetwoislegallyspeakin
g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"Les
ser"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librar
ies.
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librar
y.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.