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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,
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"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 PUBLIC 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
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other authorized party saying it may be distributed under
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this Lesser General Public License (also called "this
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Each licensee is addressed as "you".
A "library" means a collection of software functions
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Activities other than copying, distribution and
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