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pients, so that they can relink them with the
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We protect your rights with a two-step method:
(1) we copyright the library, and (2) we offer you
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To protect each distributor, we want to make it
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Most GNU software, including some libraries, is
covered by the ordinary GNU General Public
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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
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When a program is linked with a library, whether
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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.
170
For example, on rare occasions, there may be a
special need to encourage the widest possible use
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little to gain by limiting the free library to free soft-
ware only, so we use the Lesser General Public
License.
In other cases, permission to use a particular
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people to use the whole GNU operating system, as
well as its variant, the GNU/Linux operating
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
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Library.
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