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perlgpl

Perl 5 version 8.9 documentation
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perlgpl

SYNOPSIS

  1.  You can refer to this document in Pod via "L<perlgpl>"
  2.  Or you can see this document by entering "perldoc perlgpl"

DESCRIPTION

This is "The GNU General Public License, version 2". It's here so that modules, programs, etc., that want to declare this as their distribution license, can link to it.

It is also one of the two licenses Perl allows itself to be redistributed and/or modified; for the other one, the Perl Artistic License, see the perlartistic.

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

  1. 		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
  2. 		       Version 2, June 1991
  4.  Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  5.                        51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA
  6.  Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
  7.  of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
  9. 			    Preamble
  11.   The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
  12. freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public
  13. License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
  14. software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This
  15. General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
  16. Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
  17. using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
  18. the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
  19. your programs, too.
  21.   When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
  22. price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
  23. have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
  24. this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
  25. if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
  26. in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
  28.   To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
  29. anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
  30. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
  31. distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
  33.   For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
  34. gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
  35. you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
  36. source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their
  37. rights.
  39.   We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
  40. (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
  41. distribute and/or modify the software.
  43.   Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
  44. that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
  45. software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
  46. want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
  47. that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
  48. authors' reputations.
  50.   Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
  51. patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
  52. program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
  53. program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
  54. patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
  56.   The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
  57. modification follow.
  59. 		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
  60.    TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
  62.   0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
  63. a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
  64. under the terms of this General Public License.  The "Program", below,
  65. refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
  66. means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
  67. that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
  68. either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
  69. language.  (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
  70. the term "modification".)  Each licensee is addressed as "you".

Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

  1.   1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
  2. source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
  3. conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
  4. copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
  5. notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
  6. and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
  7. along with the Program.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

  1.   2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
  2. of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
  3. distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
  4. above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
  6.     a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
  7.     stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
  9.     b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
  10.     whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
  11.     part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
  12.     parties under the terms of this License.
  14.     c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
  15.     when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
  16.     interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
  17.     announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
  18.     notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
  19.     a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
  20.     these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
  21.     License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
  22.     does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
  23.     the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.

In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

  1.   3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
  2. under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
  3. Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
  5.     a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
  6.     source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
  7.     1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software
  8.     interchange; or,
  10.     b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
  11.     years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
  12.     cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
  13.     machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
  14.     distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
  15.     customarily used for software interchange; or,
  17.     c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
  18.     to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
  19.     allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
  20.     received the program in object code or executable form with such
  21.     an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

  1.   4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
  2. except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
  3. otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
  4. void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
  5. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
  6. this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
  7. parties remain in full compliance.
  9.   5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
  10. signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
  11. distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are
  12. prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by
  13. modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
  14. Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
  15. all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
  16. the Program or works based on it.
  18.   6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
  19. Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
  20. original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
  21. these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further
  22. restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
  23. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
  24. this License.
  26.   7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
  27. infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
  28. conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
  29. otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
  30. excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot
  31. distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
  32. License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
  33. may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent
  34. license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
  35. all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
  36. the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
  37. refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.

This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

  1.   8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
  2. certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
  3. original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
  4. may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
  5. those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
  6. countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates
  7. the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
  9.   9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
  10. of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will
  11. be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
  12. address new problems or concerns.

Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

  1.   10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
  2. programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
  3. to ask for permission.  For software which is copyrighted by the Free
  4. Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
  5. make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals
  6. of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
  7. of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
  9. 			    NO WARRANTY
  11.   11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO
  12. WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
  13. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR
  14. OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
  15. KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
  16. IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
  17. PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE
  18. PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME
  19. THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
  21.   12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
  22. WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY
  23. AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU
  24. FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR
  25. CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE
  26. PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING
  27. RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A
  28. FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF
  29. SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
  30. DAMAGES.
  32. 		     END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
  34. 	    How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
  36.   If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
  37. possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
  38. free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
  39. terms.
  41.   To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
  42. to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
  43. convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
  44. the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
  46.     <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
  47.     Copyright (C) <year>  <name of author>
  49.     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
  50.     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
  51.     the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
  52.     (at your option) any later version.
  54.     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  55.     but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  56.     MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
  57.     GNU General Public License for more details.
  59.     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  60.     along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
  61.     Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA

Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:

  1.     Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
  2.     Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
  3.     This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
  4.     under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.

The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.

You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:

  1.   Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
  2.   `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
  4.   <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
  5.   Ty Coon, President of Vice

This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.

[End.]

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