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When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, 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 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 software, 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) oer 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 modied by
someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the
original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reect 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 individually obtain patent licenses, in eect
making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must
be licensed for everyone’s free use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modication follow.
Terms & conditions for copying, distribution, & modication
0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice 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 modications and/or translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation
is included without limitation in the term “modication”.) Each licensee is addressed as
“you”.