Specifications

the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you
can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to
deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions
translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the soft-
ware, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or
for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must
make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must
show them these terms so they know their rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2)
offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute
and/or modify the software.
Also, for each author’s protection and ours, we want to make certain that
everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the
software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients
to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems intro-
duced by others will not reflect on the original authors’ reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We
wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individu-
ally obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To pre-
vent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for every-
one’s free use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification
follow.
GNU General, Public License
Terms and Conditions for Copying, Distribution and Modification
0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a no-
tice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the
terms of this General Public License. The “Program”, below, refers to any such
program or work, and a work based on the Program means either the Program
or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing
the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or
translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without
limitation in the term “modification”.) Each licensee is addressed as “you”.
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered
by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is
not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents
214 The GNU General Public License