1 2 The Linux 2.6.x Kernel is licensed as follows: 3 4 NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel 5 services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use 6 of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work". 7 Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software 8 Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux 9 kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it. 10 11 Also note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as the kernel 12 is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not 13 v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated. 14 15 Linus Torvalds 16 17 ---------------------------------------- 18 19 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE 20 Version 2, June 1991 21 22 Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 23 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA 24 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies 25 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. 26 27 Preamble 28 29 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your 30 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public 31 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free 32 software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This 33 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software 34 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to 35 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by 36 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to 37 your programs, too. 38 39 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not 40 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you 41 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for 42 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it 43 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it 44 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things. 45 46 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid 47 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. 48 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you 49 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it. 50 51 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether 52 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that 53 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the 54 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their 55 rights. 56 57 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and 58 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, 59 distribute and/or modify the software. 60 61 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain 62 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free 63 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we 64 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so 65 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original 66 authors' reputations. 67 68 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software 69 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free 70 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the 71 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any 72 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all. 73 74 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and 75 modification follow. 76 77 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE 78 TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION 79 80 0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains 81 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed 82 under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below, 83 refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program" 84 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: 85 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, 86 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another 87 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in 88 the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you". 89 90 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not 91 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of 92 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program 93 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the 94 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). 95 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does. 96 97 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's 98 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you 99 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate 100 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the 101 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; 102 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License 103 along with the Program. 104 105 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and 106 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee. 107 108 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion 109 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and 110 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 111 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions: 112 113 a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices 114 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change. 115 116 b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in 117 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any 118 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third 119 parties under the terms of this License. 120 121 c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively 122 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such 123 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an 124 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a 125 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide 126 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under 127 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this 128 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but 129 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on 130 the Program is not required to print an announcement.) 131 132 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If 133 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, 134 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in 135 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those 136 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you 137 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based 138 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of 139 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the 140 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it. 141 142 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest 143 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to 144 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or 145 collective works based on the Program. 146 147 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program 148 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of 149 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under 150 the scope of this License. 151 152 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, 153 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of 154 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following: 155 156 a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable 157 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 158 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or, 159 160 b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three 161 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your 162 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete 163 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be 164 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium 165 customarily used for software interchange; or, 166 167 c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer 168 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is 169 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you 170 received the program in object code or executable form with such 171 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.) 172 173 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for 174 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source 175 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any 176 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to 177 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a 178 special exception, the source code distributed need not include 179 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary 180 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the 181 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component 182 itself accompanies the executable. 183 184 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering 185 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent 186 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as 187 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not 188 compelled to copy the source along with the object code. 189 190 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program 191 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt 192 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is 193 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. 194 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under 195 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such 196 parties remain in full compliance. 197 198 5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not 199 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or 200 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are 201 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by 202 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the 203 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and 204 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying 205 the Program or works based on it. 206 207 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the 208 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the 209 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to 210 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further 211 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. 212 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to 213 this License. 214 215 7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent 216 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), 217 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or 218 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not 219 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot 220 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this 221 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you 222 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent 223 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by 224 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then 225 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to 226 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program. 227 228 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under 229 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to 230 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other 231 circumstances. 232 233 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any 234 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any 235 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the 236 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is 237 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made 238 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed 239 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that 240 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing 241 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot 242 impose that choice. 243 244 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to 245 be a consequence of the rest of this License. 246 247 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in 248 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the 249 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License 250 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding 251 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among 252 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates 253 the limitation as if written in the body of this License. 254 255 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions 256 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will 257 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to 258 address new problems or concerns. 259 260 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program 261 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any 262 later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions 263 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free 264 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of 265 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software 266 Foundation. 267 268 10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free 269 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author 270 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free 271 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes 272 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals 273 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and 274 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally. 275 276 NO WARRANTY 277 278 11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY 279 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN 280 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES 281 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED 282 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 283 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS 284 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE 285 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, 286 REPAIR OR CORRECTION. 287 288 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING 289 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR 290 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, 291 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING 292 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED 293 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY 294 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER 295 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE 296 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 297 298 END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS 299
