D I G I T A L S A T E L L I TGNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSEVersion 2.1, February 1999Copyright (C) 1991, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USAEveryone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copiesof this license document, but changing it is not allowed.[This is the first released version of the Lesser GPL. It also countsas the successor of the GNU Library Public License, version 2, hencethe version number 2.1.]PreambleThe 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 shareand 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 softwarepackages--typically libraries--of the Free Software Foundation and other authors who decide touse it. You can use it too, but we suggest you first think carefully about whether this license or theordinary General Public License is the better strategy to use in any particular case, based on theexplanations below.When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom of use, not price. Our General PublicLicenses 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; thatyou can change the software and use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you are informedthat you can do these things.To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid distributors to deny you these rightsor to ask you to surrender these rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for youif 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 therecipients all the rights that we gave you. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can getthe source code. If you link other code with the library, you must provide complete object files tothe recipients, so that they can relink them with the library after making changes to the library andrecompiling 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 thislicense, 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 freelibrary. Also, if the library is modified by someone else and passed on, the recipients should knowthat what they have is not the original version, so that the original author’s reputation will not beaffected by problems that might be introduced by others.Finally, software patents pose a constant threat to the existence of any free program. We wish tomake sure that a company cannot effectively restrict the users of a free program by obtaining arestrictive license from a patent holder. Therefore, we insist that any patent license obtained for aversion 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 PublicLicense. This license, the GNU Lesser General Public License, applies to certain designatedlibraries, and is quite different from the ordinary General Public License. We use this license forcertain libraries in order to permit linking those libraries into non-free programs.