General Public License app
pplies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any y other
p p rog g ram whose authors commit to using g it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered
by y the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.) You can app
When we sp p eak of free software, we are referring g to freedom, not p p rice. Our General Public Licenses are
desig g ned to make sure that y y ou have the freedom to distribute cop p ies of free software (and charg g e for
this service if y y ou wish), that y y ou receive source code or can g g et it if y y ou want it, that y y ou can chang g e the
software or use p p ieces of it in new free p p rog g rams; and that y y ou know y y ou can do these thing g s.
To p p rotect y y our rig g hts, we need to make restrictions that forbid any y one to deny y y y ou these rig g hts or
to ask y y ou to surrender the rig g hts. These restrictions translate to certain resp p onsibilities for y y ou if y y ou
distribute cop p ies of the software, or if y y ou modify y it.
For examp p le, if y y ou distribute cop p ies of such a p p rog g ram, whether g g ratis or for a fee, y y ou must g g ive the
recip p ients all the rig g hts that y y ou have. You must make sure that they y , too, receive or can g g et the source
code. And y y ou must show them these terms so they y know their rig g hts.
We p p rotect y y our rig g hts with two step p s: (1) copy
g g ives y y ou leg g al p p ermission to copy
Also, for each author's p p rotection and ours, we want to make certain that every y one understands that
there is no warranty y for this free software. If the software is modified by y someone else and p p assed on,
we want its recip p ients to know that what they y have is not the orig g inal, so that any y p p roblems introduced
by y others will not reflect on the orig g inal authors' rep p utations.
Finally y , any y free p p rog g ram is threatened constantly y by y software p p atents. We wish to avoid the dang g er
that redistributors of a free p p rog g ram will individually y obtain p p atent licenses, in effect making g the
p p rog g ram p p rop p rietary y . To p p revent this, we have made it clear that any y p p atent must be licensed for
every y one's free use or not licensed at all.
The p p recise terms and conditions for copy
modification follow.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
pyrig g ht the software, and (2) offer y y ou this license which
py, distribute and/or modify y the software.
pying g , distribution and
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
pply y it to y y our p p rog g rams, too.
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