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Anexo
GNU Lesser General Public
License (LGPL)
Version 2.1, February 1999
Copyright (C) 1991, 1999 Free Software Founda-
tion, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-
1307 EE.UU.
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute ver-
batim copies of this license document, but chan-
ging it is not allowed.
[This is the first released version of the Lesser GPL.
It also counts as the successor of the GNU Library
Public License, version 2, hence the version num-
ber 2.1.]
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to
take away your freedom to share and change it. By
contrast, the GNU General Public Licenses are
intended to guarantee your freedom to share and
change free software--to make sure the software
is free for all its users.
This license, the Lesser General Public License,
applies to some specially designated software
packages – typically libraries – of the Free Soft-
ware Foundation and other authors who decide to
use it. You can use it too, but we suggest you first
think carefully about whether this license or the
ordinary General Public License is the better stra-
tegy to use in any particular case, based on the
explanations below.
When we speak of free software, we are referring
to freedom of use, 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 and use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you are informed
that you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restric-
tions that forbid distributors to deny you these
rights or to ask you to surrender these rights.
These restrictions translate into certain responsi-
bilities for you if you distribute copies of the
library or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of the library,
whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the reci-
pients all the rights that we gave you. You must
make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. If you link other code with the library,
you must provide complete object files to the reci-
pients, so that they can relink them with the
library after making changes to the library and
120
recompiling it. And you must show them these
terms so they know their rights.
We protect your rights with a two-step method:
(1) we copyright the library, and (2) we offer you
this license, which gives you legal permission to
copy, distribute and/or modify the library.
To protect each distributor, we want to make it
very clear that there is no warranty for the free
library. Also, if the library is modified by someone
else and passed on, the recipients should know
that what they have is not the original version, so
that the original author's reputation will not be
affected by problems that might be introduced by
others.
Finally, software patents pose a constant threat to
the existence of any free program. We wish to
make sure that a company cannot effectively res-
trict the users of a free program by obtaining a res-
trictive license from a patent holder. Therefore, we
insist that any patent license obtained for a ver-
sion of the library must be consistent with the full
freedom of use specified in this license.
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 libra-
ries, and is quite different from the ordinary Gene-
ral 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 combina-
tion of the two is legally speaking a combined
work, a derivative of the original library. The ordi-
nary 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 possible 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 soft-
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