GNU General Public License (GPL3)
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee,
you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must
make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show
them these terms so they know their rights.
Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert
copyright on the software, and (2) offer you this License giving you legal permission
to copy, distribute and/or modify it.
For the developers' and authors' protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no
warranty for this free software. For both users' and authors' sake, the GPL requires
that modified versions be marked as changed, so that their problems will not be
attributed erroneously to authors of previous versions.
Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions
of the software inside them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is funda-
mentally incompatible with the aim of protecting users' freedom to change the
software. The systematic pattern of such abuse occurs in the area of products for
individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we
have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those products. If
such problems arise substantially in other domains, we
stand ready to extend this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL,
as needed to protect the freedom of users.
Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents. States should
not allow patents to restrict development and use of software on general-purpose
computers, but in those that do, we wish to avoid the special danger that patents
applied to a free program could make it effectively proprietary. To prevent this, the
GPL assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
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