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Samsung SMX-F54BN-XAA User Manual

Page 5

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Preamble

The 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 share and 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 software packages--

typically libraries--of the Free Software Foundation and

other authors who decide to use it. You can use it too,

but we suggest you first think carefully about whether

this license or the ordinary General Public License is the

better strategy to use in any particular case, based on

the explanations below.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to

freedom of use, 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

and use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you

are informed that you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that

forbid distributors to deny you these rights or to ask you

to surrender these rights. These restrictions translate to

certain responsibilities for you if 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 the recipients

all the rights that we gave you. You must make sure that

they, too, receive or can get the source code. If you link

other code with the library, you must provide complete

object files to the recipients, so that they can relink them

with the library after making changes to the library and

recompiling 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 this license,

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 free library. Also, if

the library is modified by someone else and passed on,

the recipients should know that what they have is not the

original version, so that the original author's reputation

will not be affected by problems that might be introduced

by others.

Finally, software patents pose a constant threat to the

existence of any free program. We wish to make sure

that a company cannot effectively restrict the users of

a free program by obtaining a restrictive license from a

patent holder. Therefore, we insist that any patent license

obtained for a version 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 Public License. This

license, the GNU Lesser General Public License, applies

to certain designated libraries, and is quite different

from the ordinary General Public License. We use this

license for certain libraries in order to permit linking those

libraries into non-free programs.

When a program is linked with a library, whether

statically or using a shared library, the combination

of the two is legally speaking a combined work, a

derivative of the original library. The ordinary General

Public License therefore permits such linking only if the

entire combination fits its criteria of freedom. The Lesser

General Public 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.

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.

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

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