License, you may choose any version ever published
by the Free Software Foundation.
NO WARRANTY
________________________________
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
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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
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When we speak of free software, we are referring to
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To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions
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We protect your rights with a two-step method: (1) we
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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
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We use this license for certain libraries in order to
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When a program is linked with a library, whether
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Public License therefore permits such linking only if
the entire combination fits its criteria of freedom. The
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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
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