Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it . By contrast,
the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to
make sure the software is free for all its users . This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it . (Some other Free Software
Foundation software is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License instead .) You can apply it to your pro-
DEU
grams, too .
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, 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 or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things .
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to
surrender the rights . These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the
software, or if you modify it .
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients
all the rights that you have . You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code . And you must
show them these terms so they know their rights .
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you
legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software .
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