GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

Version 2.1, February 1999

Copyright (C) 1991, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA

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

[This is the first released version of the Lesser GPL. It also counts as the
successor of the GNU Library Public License, version 2, hence the version
number 2.1.]

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