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Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert copyright on the
software, and (2) offer you this License giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it.
For the developers' and authors' protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty for this
free software. For both users' and authors' sake, the GPL requires that modified versions be
marked as changed, so that their problems will not be attributed erroneously to authors of previous
versions.
Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions of the software inside
them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the aim of
protecting users' freedom to change the software. The systematic pattern of such abuse occurs in the
area of products for individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we
have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those products. If such problems arise
substantially in other domains, we stand ready to extend this provision to those domains in future
versions of the GPL, as needed to protect the freedom of users.
Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents. States should not allow patents to
restrict development and use of software on general-purpose computers, but in those that do, we wish
to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program could make it effectively proprietary.
To prevent this, the GPL assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
0. Definitions.
“This License” refers to version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
“Copyright” also means copyright-like laws that apply to other kinds of works, such as semiconductor
masks.