16. Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO
IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO
MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE
TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE
THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA
BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD
PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF
THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
17. interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.
If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given
local legal effect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that
most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with
the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the
Program in return for a fee.
enD of TeRMS anD ConDiTionS
Gnu LeSSeR GeneRaL puBLiC LiCenSe
Version 2.1, February 1999
Copyright (C) 1991, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin Street, Fifth
Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301
USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license
document, but changing it is not allowed.
[This is the first released version of the Lesser GPL. It also counts as the successor of
the GNU Library Public License, version 2, hence the version number 2.1.]
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 License. This license, the GNU Lesser General Public License,
applies to certain designated 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 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.
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