![]()
Custom Search
|
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Discussion Draft 1 of Version 3, 16 Jan
2006
THIS IS A DRAFT, NOT A PUBLISHED VERSION OF THE GNU GENERAL PUBLIC
LICENSE.
Copyright (C) 2006 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.
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.
We,
the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU General Public License
for
most of our software; it applies also to any other program
whose
authors commit to using it. (Some Free Software Foundation
software
is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.)
You
can apply it to your programs, 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 requirements 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.
Developers that use the
GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1)
assert copyright on the
software, and (2) offer you this License which
gives you legal permission to
copy, distribute and/or modify the software.
For the developers' and
author's protection, the GPL clearly explains
that there is no warranty for
this free software. If the software is
modified by someone else and passed
on, the GPL ensures that recipients
are told that what they have is not the
original, so that any problems
introduced by others will not reflect on the
original authors'
reputations.
Some countries have adopted laws
prohibiting software that enables users
to escape from Digital Restrictions
Management. DRM is fundamentally
incompatible with the purpose of the GPL,
which is to protect users'
freedom; therefore, the GPL ensures that the
software it covers will
neither be subject to, nor subject other works to,
digital restrictions
from which escape is forbidden.
Finally, every
program is threatened constantly by software patents. We
wish to avoid the
special danger that redistributors of a free program will
individually obtain
patent licenses, in effect making the program
proprietary. To prevent this,
the GPL makes it clear that any patent must
be licensed for everyone's free
use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying,
distribution and
modification follow.
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC
LICENSE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND
MODIFICATION
0. Definitions.
A "licensed program" means any
program or other work distributed under
this License. The "Program" refers to
any such program or work, and a
"work based on the Program" means either the
Program or any derivative work
under copyright law: that is to say, a work
containing the Program or a
portion of it, either modified or unmodified.
Throughout this License, the
term "modification" includes, without
limitation, translation and
extension. A "covered work" means either the
Program or any work based on
the Program. Each licensee is addressed as
"you".
To "propagate" a work means doing anything with it that
requires
permission under applicable copyright law, other than executing it
on
a computer or making private modifications. This includes
copying,
distribution (with or without modification), sublicensing, and in
some
countries other activities as well.
1. Source Code.
The
"source code" for a work means the preferred form of the work
for making
modifications to it. "Object code" means any non-source
version of a
work.
The "Complete Corresponding Source Code" for a work in object code
form
means all the source code needed to understand, adapt, modify,
compile,
link, install, and run the work, excluding general-purpose tools
used in
performing those activities but which are not part of the work.
For
example, this includes any scripts used to control those activities,
and
any shared libraries and dynamically linked subprograms that the work
is
designed to require, such as by intimate data communication or control
flow
between those subprograms and other parts of the work, and
interface
definition files associated with the program source
files.
Complete Corresponding Source Code also includes any encryption
or
authorization codes necessary to install and/or execute the source code
of
the work, perhaps modified by you, in the recommended or principal
context
of use, such that its functioning in all circumstances is identical
to that
of the work, except as altered by your modifications. It also
includes any
decryption codes necessary to access or unseal the work's
output.
Notwithstanding this, a code need not be included in cases where use
of the
work normally implies the user already has it.
Complete
Corresponding Source Code need not include anything that users
can regenerate
automatically from other parts of the Complete Corresponding
Source
Code.
As a special exception, the Complete Corresponding Source Code
need
not include a particular subunit if (a) the identical subunit
is
normally included as an adjunct in the distribution of either a
major
essential component (kernel, window system, and so on) of
the
operating system on which the executable runs or a compiler used
to
produce the executable or an object code interpreter used to run
it,
and (b) the subunit (aside from possible incidental extensions)
serves
only to enable use of the work with that system component or
compiler
or interpreter, or to implement a widely used or standard
interface,
the implementation of which requires no patent license not
already
generally available for software under this License.
2. Basic
Permissions.
All rights granted under this License are granted for the
term of
copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the
stated
conditions are met. This License explicitly affirms your
unlimited
permission to run the Program. The output from running it is
covered by
this License only if the output, given its content, constitutes a
work
based on the Program. This License acknowledges your rights of "fair
use"
or other equivalent, as provided by copyright law.
This License
gives unlimited permission to privately modify and run the
Program, provided
you do not bring suit for patent infringement against
anyone for making,
using or distributing their own works based on
the
Program.
Propagation of covered works is permitted without
limitation provided it
does not enable parties other than you to make or
receive copies.
Propagation which does enable them to do so is permitted,
as
"distribution", under the conditions of sections 4-6 below.
3.
Digital Restrictions Management.
As a free software license, this License
intrinsically disfavors
technical attempts to restrict users' freedom to
copy, modify, and share
copyrighted works. Each of its provisions shall be
interpreted in light of
this specific declaration of the licensor's intent.
Regardless of any
other provision of this License, no permission is given to
distribute
covered works that illegally invade users' privacy, nor for modes
of
distribution that deny users that run covered works the full exercise
of
the legal rights granted by this License.
No covered work
constitutes part of an effective technological protection
measure: that is to
say, distribution of a covered work as part of a system
to generate or access
certain data constitutes general permission at least
for development,
distribution and use, under this License, of other
software capable of
accessing the same data.
4.[1] Verbatim Copying.
You may copy and
distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source
code as you receive it, in
any medium, provided that you conspicuously
and appropriately publish on each
copy an appropriate copyright
notice; keep intact all license notices and
notices of the absence of
any warranty; give all recipients of the Program a
copy of this
License along with the Program; and obey any additional terms
present
on parts of the Program in accord with section 7.
You may
charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your
option offer warranty protection for a fee.
5.[2] Distributing Modified
Source Versions.
Having modified a copy of the Program under the
conditions of section
2, thus forming a work based on the Program, you may
copy and distribute
such modifications or work in the form of source code
under the terms of
Section 4 above, provided that you also meet all of these
conditions:
a) The modified work must carry prominent notices stating
that you
changed the work and the date of any change.
b) You must
license the entire modified work, as a whole, under
this License to anyone
who comes into possession of a copy. This
License must apply, unmodified
except as permitted by section 7
below, to the whole of the work. This
License gives no permission
to license the work in any other way, but it does
not invalidate
such permission if you have separately received it.
c)
If the modified work has interactive user interfaces, each must
include a
convenient feature that displays an appropriate
copyright notice, and tells
the user that there is no warranty for
the program (or that you provide a
warranty), that users may
redistribute the modified work under these
conditions, and how to
view a copy of this License together with the central
list (if any) of
other terms in accord with section 7. If the interface
presents a
list of user commands or options, such as a menu, a command
to
display this information must be prominent in the list.
Otherwise, the
modified work must display this information at
startup--except in the case
that the Program has such
interactive modes and does not display this
information at
startup.
These requirements apply to the modified work
as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work, added by you, are not
derived from
the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and
separate
works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply
to
those sections when you distribute them as separate works for use
not
in combination with the Program. But when you distribute the
same
sections for use in combination with covered works, no matter in
what
form such combination occurs, the whole of the combination must
be
licensed under this License, whose permissions for other
licensees
extend to the entire whole, and thus to every part of the whole.
Your
sections may carry other terms as part of this combination in
limited
ways, described in section 7.
Thus, it is not the intent of
this section to claim rights or contest
your rights to work written entirely
by you; rather, the intent is to
exercise the right to control the
distribution of derivative or
collective works based on the Program.
A
compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent
works,
which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work,
in or on a
volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an
"aggregate" if the
copyright resulting from the compilation is not
used to limit the legal
rights of the compilation's users beyond what
the individual works permit.
Mere inclusion of a covered work in an
aggregate does not cause this License
to apply to the other parts of
the aggregate.
6.[3] Non-Source
Distribution.
You may copy and distribute a covered work in Object Code
form under the
terms of Sections 4 and 5, provided that you also distribute
the
machine-readable Complete Corresponding Source Code (herein
the
"Corresponding Source") under the terms of this License, in one of
these
ways:
a) Distribute the Object Code in a physical product
(including a
physical distribution medium), accompanied by the Corresponding
Source
distributed on a durable physical medium customarily used for
software
interchange; or,
b) Distribute the Object Code in a physical
product (including a
physical distribution medium), accompanied by a written
offer, valid
for at least three years and valid for as long as you offer
spare parts
or customer support for that product model, to give any third
party,
for a price no more than ten times your cost of physically
performing
source distribution, a copy of the Corresponding Source for all
the
software in the product that is covered by this License, on a
durable
physical medium customarily used for software interchange;
or,
c) Privately distribute the Object Code with a copy of the
written
offer to provide the Corresponding Source. This alternative
is
allowed only for occasional noncommercial distribution, and only
if you
received the Object Code with such an offer, in accord with
Subsection b
above. Or,
d) Distribute the Object Code by offering access to copy
it
from a designated place, and offer equivalent access to copy
the
Corresponding Source in the same way through the same place.
You need not
require recipients to copy the Corresponding Source
along with the Object
Code.
[If the place to copy the Object Code is a network server,
the
Corresponding Source may be on a different server that
supports
equivalent copying facilities, provided you have
explicitly
arranged with the operator of that server to keep
the
Corresponding Source available for as long as needed to satisfy
these
requirements, and provided you maintain clear directions
next to the Object
Code saying where to find the Corresponding
Source.]
Distribution of
the Corresponding Source in accord with this section
must be in a format that
is publicly documented, unencumbered by
patents, and must require no special
password or key for unpacking,
reading or copying.
The Corresponding
Source may include portions which do not formally
state this License as their
license, but qualify under section 7
for inclusion in a work under this
License.
7. License Compatibility.
When you release a work based
on the Program, you may include your own
terms covering added parts for which
you have, or can give,
appropriate copyright permission, as long as those
terms clearly permit
all the activities that this License permits, or permit
usage or
relicensing under this License. Your terms may be written separately
or
may be this License plus additional written permission. If you so
license
your own added parts, those parts may be used separately under
your
terms, but the entire work remains under this License. Those who
copy
the work, or works based on it, must preserve your terms just as
they
must preserve this License, as long as any substantial portion of the
parts
they apply to are present.
Aside from additional permissions,
your terms may add limited kinds of
additional requirements on your added
parts, as follows:
a) They may require the preservation of certain
copyright notices,
other legal notices, and/or author attributions, and may
require
that the origin of the parts they cover not be
misrepresented,
and/or that altered versions of them be marked in the source
code,
or marked there in specific reasonable ways, as different from
the
original version.
b) They may state a disclaimer of warranty and
liability in terms
different from those used in this License.
c) They
may prohibit or limit the use for publicity purposes of specified
names of
contributors, and they may require that certain specified
trademarks be used
for publicity purposes only in the ways that are
fair use under trademark law
except with express permission.
d) They may require that the work contain
functioning facilities that
allow users to immediately obtain copies of its
Complete Corresponding
Source Code.
e) They may impose software patent
retaliation, which means permission
for use of your added parts terminates or
may be terminated, wholly or
partially, under stated conditions, for users
closely related to any
party that has filed a software patent lawsuit (i.e.,
a lawsuit
alleging that some software infringes a patent). The conditions
must
limit retaliation to a subset of these two cases: 1. Lawsuits that
lack
the justification of retaliating against other software patent
lawsuits
that lack such justification. 2. Lawsuits that target part of
this
work, or other code that was elsewhere released together with the
parts
you added, the whole being under the terms used here for those
parts.
No other additional conditions are permitted in your terms;
therefore, no
other conditions can be present on any work that uses this
License. This
License does not attempt to enforce your terms, or assert that
they are
valid or enforceable by you; it simply does not prohibit you from
employing
them.
When others modify the work, if they modify your parts
of it, they may
release such parts of their versions under this License
without additional
permissions, by including notice to that effect, or by
deleting the notice
that gives specific permissions in addition to this
License. Then any
broader permissions granted by your terms which are not
granted by this
License will not apply to their modifications, or to the
modified versions
of your parts resulting from their modifications. However,
the specific
requirements of your terms will still apply to whatever was
derived from
your added parts.
Unless the work also permits
distribution under a previous version of
this License, all the other terms
included in the work under this section
must be listed, together, in a
central list in the work.
8.[4] Termination.
You may not
propagate, modify or sublicense the Program except as
expressly provided
under this License. Any attempt otherwise to
propagate, modify or sublicense
the Program is void, and any copyright
holder may terminate your rights under
this License at any time after
having notified you of the violation by any
reasonable means within 60
days of any occurrence. However, parties who have
received copies, or
rights, from you under this License will not have their
licenses
terminated so long as they remain in full compliance.
9.[5]
Not a Contract.
You are not required to accept this License in order to
receive a copy of
the Program. However, nothing else grants you permission to
propagate or
modify the Program or any covered works. These actions infringe
copyright
if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or
propagating
the Program (or any covered work), you indicate your acceptance
of this
License to do so, and all its terms and conditions.
10.[6]
Automatic Licensing of Downstream Users.
Each time you redistribute a
covered work, the recipient automatically
receives a license from the
original licensors, to propagate and modify
that work, subject to this
License, including any additional terms
introduced through section 7. You may
not impose any further restrictions
on the recipients' exercise of the rights
thus granted or affirmed, except
(when modifying the work) in the limited
ways permitted by section 7. You
are not responsible for enforcing compliance
by third parties to this
License.
11. Licensing of
Patents.
When you distribute a covered work, you grant a patent license
to
the recipient, and to anyone that receives any version of the
work,
permitting, for any and all versions of the covered work,
all
activities allowed or contemplated by this License, such
as
installing, running and distributing versions of the work, and
using
their output. This patent license is nonexclusive, royalty-free
and
worldwide, and covers all patent claims you control or have the
right
to sublicense, at the time you distribute the covered work or in
the
future, that would be infringed or violated by the covered work or
any
reasonably contemplated use of the covered work.
If you distribute
a covered work knowingly relying on a patent license,
you must act to shield
downstream users against the possible patent
infringement claims from which
your license protects you.
12.[7] Liberty or Death for the
Program.
If conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order,
agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they
do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
distribute
the Program, or other covered work, so as to satisfy
simultaneously your
obligations under this License and any other pertinent
obligations, then as
a consequence you may not distribute it at all. For
example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution by
all those who
receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the
only way you
could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain
entirely from
distribution.
It is not the purpose of this section to
induce you to infringe any
patents or other exclusive rights or to contest
their legal validity.
The sole purpose of this section is to protect the
integrity of the
free software distribution system. Many people have made
generous
contributions to the wide range of software distributed through
that
system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is
up
to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to
distribute
software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose
that
choice.
[13.[8] Geographical Limitations.
If the
distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain
countries
either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original
copyright holder
who places the Program under this License may add an
explicit geographical
distribution limitation excluding those countries,
so that distribution is
permitted only in or among countries not thus
excluded. In such case, this
License incorporates the limitation as if
written in the body of this
License.]
14.[9] Revised Versions of this License.
The Free
Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of
the GNU
General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
be similar
in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
address new
problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version
number. If the Program
specifies that a certain numbered version of this
License "or any
later version" applies to it, you have the option of
following the
terms and conditions either of that numbered version or of any
later
version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the
Program
does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose
any
version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.
15.[10]
Requesting Exceptions.
If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program
into other free
programs whose distribution conditions are different, write
to the author
to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the
Free
Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we
sometimes
make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two
goals
of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software
and
of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
NO
WARRANTY
16.[11] There is no warranty for the Program, to the extent
permitted by
applicable law. Except when otherwise stated in writing the
copyright
holders and/or other parties provide the Program "as is" without
warranty
of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited
to,
the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a
particular
purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the
Program
is with you. Should the Program prove defective, you assume the cost
of
all necessary servicing, repair or correction.
17.[12] In no event
unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing
will any copyright
holder, or any other party who may modify and/or
redistribute 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.
18. Unless specifically stated, the Program has not been tested
for use
in safety critical systems.
END OF TERMS AND
CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you
develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to
the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which
everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach
the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the
start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of
warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a
pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the
program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C)
<year> <name of author>
This program is free software; you
can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 3
of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is
distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more
details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation,
Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301
USA
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and
paper mail.
If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a
short
notice like this when it starts in an interactive
mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of
author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show
w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under
certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
The hypothetical commands
`show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
parts of the General Public
License. Of course, the commands you use may
be called something other than
`show w' and `show c'; for a GUI interface,
you would use an "About box"
instead.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer)
or your
school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
if
necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc.,
hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which
makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Rich
R. Thanus>, 1 April 1989
Rich R. Thanus, Peripheral Visionary
For
more information on how to apply and follow the GNU GPL,
see
//www.gnu.org/licenses.
The GNU General Public License does
not permit incorporating your program
into proprietary programs. If your
program is a subroutine library, you
may consider it more useful to permit
linking proprietary applications with
the library. If this is what you want
to do, use the GNU Lesser General
Public License instead of this
License.
![]()
Custom Search
|