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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 different from the ordinary General Public License. We
use this license for certain libraries in order to permit linking those libraries into non-free
programs.
When a program is linked with a library, whether statically or using 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 possi-
ble 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, distribution and modification follow. Pay
close attention to the difference between a "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.
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