1 2 NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel 3 services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use 4 of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work". 5 Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software 6 Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux 7 kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it. 8 9 Also note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as the kernel 10 is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not 11 v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated. 12 13 Linus Torvalds 14 15 ---------------------------------------- 16 17 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE 18 Version 2, June 1991 19 20 Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 21 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA 22 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies 23 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. 24 25 Preamble 26 27 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your 28 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public 29 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free 30 software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This 31 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software 32 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to 33 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by 34 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to 35 your programs, too. 36 37 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not 38 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you 39 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for 40 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it 41 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it 42 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things. 43 44 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid 45 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. 46 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you 47 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it. 48 49 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether 50 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that 51 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the 52 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their 53 rights. 54 55 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and 56 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, 57 distribute and/or modify the software. 58 59 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain 60 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free 61 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we 62 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so 63 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original 64 authors' reputations. 65 66 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software 67 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free 68 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the 69 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any 70 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all. 71 72 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and 73 modification follow. 74 76 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE 77 TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION 78 79 0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains 80 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed 81 under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below, 82 refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program" 83 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: 84 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, 85 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another 86 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in 87 the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you". 88 89 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not 90 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of 91 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program 92 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the 93 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). 94 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does. 95 96 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's 97 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you 98 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate 99 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the 100 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; 101 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License 102 along with the Program. 103 104 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and 105 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee. 106 107 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion 108 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and 109 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 110 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions: 111 112 a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices 113 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change. 114 115 b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in 116 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any 117 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third 118 parties under the terms of this License. 119 120 c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively 121 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such 122 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an 123 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a 124 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide 125 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under 126 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this 127 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but 128 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on 129 the Program is not required to print an announcement.) 130 132 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. 189 191 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program 192 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt 193 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is 194 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. 195 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under 196 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such 197 parties remain in full compliance. 198 199 5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not 200 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or 201 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are 202 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by 203 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the 204 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and 205 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying 206 the Program or works based on it. 207 208 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the 209 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the 210 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to 211 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further 212 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. 213 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to 214 this License. 215 216 7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent 217 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), 218 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or 219 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not 220 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot 221 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this 222 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you 223 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent 224 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by 225 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then 226 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to 227 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program. 228 229 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under 230 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to 231 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other 232 circumstances. 233 234 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any 235 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any 236 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the 237 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is 238 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made 239 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed 240 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that 241 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing 242 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot 243 impose that choice. 244 245 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to 246 be a consequence of the rest of this License. 247 249 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in 250 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the 251 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License 252 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding 253 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among 254 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates 255 the limitation as if written in the body of this License. 256 257 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions 258 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will 259 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to 260 address new problems or concerns. 261 262 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program 263 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any 264 later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions 265 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free 266 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of 267 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software 268 Foundation. 269 270 10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free 271 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author 272 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free 273 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes 274 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals 275 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and 276 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally. 277 278 NO WARRANTY 279 280 11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY 281 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN 282 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES 283 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED 284 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 285 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS 286 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE 287 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, 288 REPAIR OR CORRECTION. 289 290 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING 291 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR 292 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, 293 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING 294 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED 295 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY 296 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER 297 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE 298 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 299 300 END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS 301 303 How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs 304 305 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest 306 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it 307 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms. 308 309 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest 310 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively 311 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least 312 the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found. 313 314 <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.> 315 Copyright (C) <year> <name of author> 316 317 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 318 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by 319 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or 320 (at your option) any later version. 321 322 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 323 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 324 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the 325 GNU General Public License for more details. 326 327 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 328 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software 329 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA 330 331 332 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail. 333 334 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this 335 when it starts in an interactive mode: 336 337 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author 338 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'. 339 This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it 340 under certain conditions; type `show c' for details. 341 342 The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate 343 parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may 344 be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be 345 mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program. 346 347 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your 348 school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if 349 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names: 350 351 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program 352 `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker. 353 354 <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989 355 Ty Coon, President of Vice 356 357 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into 358 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may 359 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the 360 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General 361 Public License instead of this License. 362
