Cisco Cisco IPICS Release 2.1 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