Cisco Cisco Prime Home 2.4 Licensing Information

 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.