Thomas A. Alspaugh
GNU General Public License
Version 2, June 1991

Under Construction

Hide/show notes
Hide/show §¶s
Automatically ¶-§-sentence numbered throughout.

Source: OSI text (2009Jul07)

The unnumbered top-level headings in the original have been interpreted as defining top-level sections, and are displayed here with faint square-bracketed numbers that are not in the original. Earlier versions of this page numbered these top-level sections with decimal numbers rather than roman numerals.

Words, repeated phrases.

¶1¶1ṣ1Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

¶2¶2ṣ1Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

§IPreamble

§I¶1§I¶1ṣ1The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. §I¶1ṣ2By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free softwareto make sure the software is free for all its users. §I¶1ṣ3This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. §I¶1ṣ4(Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) §I¶1ṣ5You can apply it to your programs, too.

§I¶2§I¶2ṣ1When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. §I¶2ṣ2Our 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; ṣ2.1and that you know you can do these things.

§I¶3§I¶3ṣ1To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. §I¶3ṣ2These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

§I¶4§I¶4ṣ1For 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. §I¶4ṣ2You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. §I¶4ṣ3And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

§I¶5§I¶5ṣ1We protect your rights with two steps:

  1. (1) ṣ1.1copyright the software, and
  2. (2) ṣ1.2offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

§I¶6§I¶6ṣ1Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. §I¶6ṣ2If the software is modified 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 reflect on the original authors' reputations.

§I¶7§I¶7ṣ1Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. §I¶7ṣ2We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. §I¶7ṣ3To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

§I¶8§I¶8ṣ1The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.

§IITERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0. §II.0§II.0¶1ṣ1This 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. §II.0¶1ṣ2The 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: ṣ2.1that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language. §II.0¶1ṣ3(Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term modification.) §II.0¶1ṣ4Each licensee is addressed as you.

§II.0¶2§II.0¶2ṣ1Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; ṣ1.1they are outside its scope. §II.0¶2ṣ2The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). §II.0¶2ṣ3Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

1. §II.1§II.1¶1ṣ1You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; ṣ1.1keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; ṣ1.2and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

§II.1¶2§II.1¶2ṣ1You 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. §II.2§II.2¶1ṣ1You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

  1. a) §II.2¶1.a§II.2¶1.aṣ1You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
  2. b) §II.2¶1.b§II.2¶1.bṣ1You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.
  3. c) §II.2¶1.c§II.2¶1.cṣ1If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License. §II.2¶1.cṣ2(Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

§II.2¶2§II.2¶2ṣ1These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. §II.2¶2ṣ2If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. §II.2¶2ṣ3But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

§II.2¶3§II.2¶3ṣ1Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; ṣ1.1rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.

§II.2¶4§II.2¶4ṣ1In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

3. §II.3§II.3¶1ṣ1You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

These list items are not structurally parallel in the original; the largest item has more than one sentence, so here each item is counted as a subparagraph.

  1. a) §II.3¶1.a§II.3¶1.aṣ1Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
  2. b) §II.3¶1.b§II.3¶1.bṣ1Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
  3. c) §II.3¶1.c§II.3¶1.cṣ1Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. §II.3¶1.cṣ2(This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

§II.3¶2§II.3¶2ṣ1The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. §II.3¶2ṣ2For an executable work, 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 executable. §II.3¶2ṣ3However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

§II.3¶3§II.3¶3ṣ1If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

4. §II.4§II.4¶1ṣ1You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. §II.4¶1ṣ2Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. §II.4¶1ṣ3However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

5. §II.5§II.5¶1ṣ1You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. §II.5¶1ṣ2However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. §II.5¶1ṣ3These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. §II.5¶1ṣ4Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

6. §II.6§II.6¶1ṣ1Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. §II.6¶1ṣ2You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. §II.6¶1ṣ3You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

7. §II.7§II.7¶1ṣ1If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. §II.7¶1ṣ2If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. §II.7¶1ṣ3For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

§II.7¶2§II.7¶2ṣ1If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

§II.7¶3§II.7¶3ṣ1It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; ṣ1.1this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. §II.7¶3ṣ2Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; ṣ2.1it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.

§II.7¶4§II.7¶4ṣ1This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

8. §II.8§II.8¶1ṣ1If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded. §II.8¶1ṣ2In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

9. §II.9§II.9¶1ṣ1The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. §II.9¶1ṣ2Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

§II.9¶2§II.9¶2ṣ1Each version is given a distinguishing version number. §II.9¶2ṣ2If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and any later version, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. §II.9¶2ṣ3If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

10. §II.10§II.10¶1ṣ1If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission. §II.10¶1ṣ2For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; ṣ2.1we sometimes make exceptions for this. §II.10¶1ṣ3Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

§II.10¶2§II.10¶2ṣ1NO WARRANTY

11. §II.11§II.11¶1ṣ1BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. §II.11¶1ṣ2EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. §II.11¶1ṣ3THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. §II.11¶1ṣ4SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

12. §II.12§II.12¶1ṣ1IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

§IIIHow to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

§III¶1§III¶1ṣ1If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.

§III¶2§III¶2ṣ1To do so, attach the following notices to the program. §III¶2ṣ2It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; ṣ2.1and each file should have at least the copyright line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.

§III¶3§III¶3ṣ1One line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.
§III¶3ṣ2Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>

§III¶4§III¶4ṣ1This program is free software; ṣ1.1you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; ṣ1.2either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

§III¶5§III¶5ṣ1This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; ṣ1.1without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. §III¶5ṣ2See the GNU General Public License for more details.

§III¶6§III¶6ṣ1You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; ṣ1.1if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

§III¶7§III¶7ṣ1Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

§III¶8§III¶8ṣ1If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:

§III¶9§III¶9ṣ1Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; ṣ1.1for details type show w. §III¶9ṣ2This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; ṣ2.1type show c for details.

§III¶10§III¶10ṣ1The hypothetical commands show w and show c should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. §III¶10ṣ2Of course, the commands you use may be called something other than show w and show c; ṣ2.1they could even be mouse-clicks or menu itemswhatever suits your program.

§III¶11§III¶11ṣ1You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a copyright disclaimer for the program, if necessary. §III¶11ṣ2Here is a sample; ṣ2.1alter the names:

§III¶12§III¶12ṣ1Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program Gnomovision (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.

§III¶13§III¶13ṣ1signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice

§III¶14§III¶14ṣ1This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. §III¶14ṣ2If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. §III¶14ṣ3If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.

flip bgunflip