that what they have is not the original version, so that the original
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Finally, software patents pose a constant threat to the existence of
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restrictive license from a patent holder. Therefore, we insist that
any patent license obtained for a version of the library must be
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Most GNU software, including some libraries, is covered by the
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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
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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
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For example, on rare occasions, there may be a special need to
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In other cases, permission to use a particular library in non-free
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non-free programs enables many more people to use the whole GNU
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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
