Linksys E2000 User Manual

Page 53

Linksys E2000

Appendix E: Software End User License Agreement

Advanced Wireless-N Router

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 software

only, so we use the Lesser General Public License .
In other cases, permission to use a particular library in non-

free programs enables a greater number of people to use

a large body of free software . For example, permission to

use the GNU C Library in non-free programs enables many

more 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 run that program using a

modified version of the Library .
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution

and modification follow . Pay close attention to the

difference between a “work based on the library” and a

“work that uses the library” . The former contains code

derived from the library, whereas the latter must be

combined with the library in order to run .

GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING,

DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0 . This License Agreement applies to any software library

or other program which contains a notice placed by

the copyright holder or other authorized party saying

it may be distributed under the terms of this Lesser

General Public License (also called “this License”) . Each

licensee is addressed as “you” .
A “library” means a collection of software functions

and/or data prepared so as to be conveniently linked

with application programs (which use some of those

functions and data) to form executables .
The “Library”, below, refers to any such software library

or work which has been distributed under these terms .

A “work based on the Library” means either the Library

or any derivative work under copyright law: that is

to say, a work containing the Library or a portion

of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or

translated straightforwardly into another language .

(Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation

in the term “modification” .)
“Source code” for a work means the preferred form of

the work for making modifications to it . For a library,

complete source code means all the source code for

all modules it contains, plus any associated interface

definition files, plus the scripts used to control

compilation and installation of the library .
Activities other than copying, distribution and

modification are not covered by this License; they are

outside its scope . The act of running a program using

the Library is not restricted, and output from such a

program is covered only if its contents constitute a

work based on the Library (independent of the use

of the Library in a tool for writing it) . Whether that is

true depends on what the Library does and what the

program that uses the Library does .

1 . You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the

Library’s complete source code as you receive it, in

any medium, provided that you conspicuously and

appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate

intact all the notices that refer to this License and to

the absence of any warranty; and distribute a copy of

this License along with the Library .
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring

a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty

protection in exchange for a fee .

2 . You may modify your copy or copies of the Library or

any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the

Library, and copy and distribute such modifications

or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided

that you also meet all of these conditions:
a . The modified work must itself be a software library .
b . You must cause the files modified to carry

prominent notices stating that you changed the

files and the date of any change .

c . You must cause the whole of the work to be

licensed at no charge to all third parties under the

terms of this License .

d . If a facility in the modified Library refers to a

function or a table of data to be supplied by an

application program that uses the facility, other

than as an argument passed when the facility is

invoked, then you must make a good faith effort

to ensure that, in the event an application does

not supply such function or table, the facility

still operates, and performs whatever part of its

purpose remains meaningful .

(For example, a function in a library to compute square

roots has a purpose that is entirely well-defined

independent of the application . Therefore, Subsection

2d requires that any application-supplied function or