73 lines
3.5 KiB
HTML
73 lines
3.5 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
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<!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 96.1-c (Feb 29, 1996) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds -->
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>Preamble</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY LANG="EN">
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<A HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
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<B> Next:</B> <A HREF="node288.html">Terms and Conditions for </A>
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<B>Up:</B> <A HREF="node286.html">The GNU General Public </A>
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<B> Previous:</B> <A HREF="node286.html">The GNU General Public </A>
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<BR> <P>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION0024100000">Preamble</A></H1>
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<P>
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The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
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freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
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License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
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software-to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
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General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
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Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
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using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
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the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
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your programs, too.
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<P>
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When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
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price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
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have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
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this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
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if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
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in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
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<P>
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To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
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anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
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These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
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distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
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<P>
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For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
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gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
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you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
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source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
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rights.
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<P>
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We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
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(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
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distribute and/or modify the software.
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<P>
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Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
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that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
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software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
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want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
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that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
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authors' reputations.
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<P>
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Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
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patents. We wish to avoid the danger that re-distributors of a free
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program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
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program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
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patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
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<P>
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The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
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modification follow.
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<P>
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<HR><A HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
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<B> Next:</B> <A HREF="node288.html">Terms and Conditions for </A>
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<B>Up:</B> <A HREF="node286.html">The GNU General Public </A>
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<B> Previous:</B> <A HREF="node286.html">The GNU General Public </A>
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<P><ADDRESS>
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<I>Andrew Anderson <BR>
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Thu Mar 7 23:22:06 EST 1996</I>
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</ADDRESS>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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