1 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
2 Version 1, February 1989
4 Copyright (C) 1989 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
6 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
10 The license agreements of most software companies try to keep users
11 at the mercy of those companies. By contrast, our General Public
12 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
13 software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. The
14 General Public License applies to the Free Software Foundation's
15 software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it.
16 You can use it for your programs, too.
18 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
19 price. Specifically, the General Public License is designed to make
20 sure that you have the freedom to give away or sell copies of free
21 software, that you receive source code or can get it if you want it,
22 that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free
23 programs; and that you know you can do these things.
25 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
26 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
27 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
28 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
30 For example, if you distribute copies of a such a program, whether
31 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
32 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
33 source code. And you must tell them their rights.
35 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
36 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
37 distribute and/or modify the software.
39 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
40 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
41 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
42 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
43 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
46 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
49 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
50 TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
52 0. This License Agreement applies to any program or other work which
53 contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be
54 distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The
55 "Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based
56 on the Program" means either the Program or any work containing the
57 Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications. Each
58 licensee is addressed as "you".
60 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source
61 code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and
62 appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and
63 disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this
64 General Public License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any
65 other recipients of the Program a copy of this General Public License
66 along with the Program. You may charge a fee for the physical act of
69 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
70 it, and copy and distribute such modifications under the terms of Paragraph
71 1 above, provided that you also do the following:
73 a) cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that
74 you changed the files and the date of any change; and
76 b) cause the whole of any work that you distribute or publish, that
77 in whole or in part contains the Program or any part thereof, either
78 with or without modifications, to be licensed at no charge to all
79 third parties under the terms of this General Public License (except
80 that you may choose to grant warranty protection to some or all
81 third parties, at your option).
83 c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when
84 run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use
85 in the simplest and most usual way, to print or display an
86 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice
87 that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a
88 warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these
89 conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this General
92 d) You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a
93 copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in
96 Mere aggregation of another independent work with the Program (or its
97 derivative) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring
98 the other work under the scope of these terms.
100 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a portion or derivative of
101 it, under Paragraph 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
102 Paragraphs 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
104 a) accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
105 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of
106 Paragraphs 1 and 2 above; or,
108 b) accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
109 years, to give any third party free (except for a nominal charge
110 for the cost of distribution) a complete machine-readable copy of the
111 corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of
112 Paragraphs 1 and 2 above; or,
114 c) accompany it with the information you received as to where the
115 corresponding source code may be obtained. (This alternative is
116 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
117 received the program in object code or executable form alone.)
119 Source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making
120 modifications to it. For an executable file, complete source code means
121 all the source code for all modules it contains; but, as a special
122 exception, it need not include source code for modules which are standard
123 libraries that accompany the operating system on which the executable
124 file runs, or for standard header files or definitions files that
125 accompany that operating system.
127 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, distribute or transfer the
128 Program except as expressly provided under this General Public License.
129 Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, distribute or transfer
130 the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights to use
131 the Program under this License. However, parties who have received
132 copies, or rights to use copies, from you under this General Public
133 License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties
134 remain in full compliance.
136 5. By copying, distributing or modifying the Program (or any work based
137 on the Program) you indicate your acceptance of this license to do so,
138 and all its terms and conditions.
140 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
141 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original
142 licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these
143 terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the
144 recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
146 7. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
147 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
148 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
149 address new problems or concerns.
151 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
152 specifies a version number of the license which applies to it and "any
153 later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
154 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
155 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
156 the license, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
159 8. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
160 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
161 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
162 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
163 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
164 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
165 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
169 9. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
170 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
171 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
172 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
173 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
174 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
175 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
176 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
177 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
179 10. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
180 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
181 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
182 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
183 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
184 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
185 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
186 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
187 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
189 END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
191 Appendix: How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
193 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
194 possible use to humanity, the best way to achieve this is to make it
195 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
198 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to
199 attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey
200 the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the
201 "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
203 <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
204 Copyright (C) 19yy <name of author>
206 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
207 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
208 the Free Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option)
211 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
212 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
213 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
214 GNU General Public License for more details.
216 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
217 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
220 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
222 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
223 when it starts in an interactive mode:
225 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19xx name of author
226 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
227 This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
228 under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
230 The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the
231 appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
232 commands you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show
233 c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your
236 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
237 school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
238 necessary. Here a sample; alter the names:
240 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the
241 program `Gnomovision' (a program to direct compilers to make passes
242 at assemblers) written by James Hacker.
244 <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
245 Ty Coon, President of Vice
247 That's all there is to it!