linux/COPYING
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   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
  28freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public
  29License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
  30software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This
  31General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
  32Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
  33using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
  34the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
  35your programs, too.
  36
  37  When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
  38price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
  39have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
  40this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
  41if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
  42in 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
  45anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
  46These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
  47distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
  48
  49  For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
  50gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
  51you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
  52source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their
  53rights.
  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,
  57distribute and/or modify the software.
  58
  59  Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
  60that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
  61software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
  62want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
  63that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
  64authors' reputations.
  65
  66  Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
  67patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
  68program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
  69program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
  70patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
  71
  72  The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
  73modification follow.
  74
  75                    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
  76   TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
  77
  78  0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
  79a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
  80under the terms of this General Public License.  The "Program", below,
  81refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
  82means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
  83that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
  84either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
  85language.  (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
  86the term "modification".)  Each licensee is addressed as "you".
  87
  88Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
  89covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act of
  90running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
  91is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
  92Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
  93Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
  94
  95  1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
  96source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
  97conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
  98copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
  99notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
 100and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
 101along with the Program.
 102
 103You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
 104you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
 105
 106  2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
 107of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
 108distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
 109above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
 110
 111    a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
 112    stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
 113
 114    b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
 115    whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
 116    part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
 117    parties under the terms of this License.
 118
 119    c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
 120    when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
 121    interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
 122    announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
 123    notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
 124    a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
 125    these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
 126    License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
 127    does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
 128    the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
 129
 130These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
 131identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
 132and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
 133themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
 134sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you
 135distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
 136on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
 137this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
 138entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
 139
 140Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
 141your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
 142exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
 143collective works based on the Program.
 144
 145In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
 146with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
 147a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
 148the scope of this License.
 149
 150  3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
 151under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
 152Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
 153
 154    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
 155    source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
 156    1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
 157
 158    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
 159    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
 160    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
 161    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
 162    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
 163    customarily used for software interchange; or,
 164
 165    c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
 166    to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
 167    allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
 168    received the program in object code or executable form with such
 169    an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
 170
 171The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
 172making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source
 173code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
 174associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
 175control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a
 176special exception, the source code distributed need not include
 177anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
 178form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
 179operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
 180itself accompanies the executable.
 181
 182If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
 183access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
 184access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
 185distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
 186compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
 187
 188  4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
 189except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
 190otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
 191void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
 192However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
 193this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
 194parties remain in full compliance.
 195
 196  5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
 197signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
 198distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are
 199prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by
 200modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
 201Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
 202all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
 203the Program or works based on it.
 204
 205  6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
 206Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
 207original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
 208these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further
 209restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
 210You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
 211this License.
 212
 213  7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
 214infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
 215conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
 216otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
 217excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot
 218distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
 219License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
 220may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent
 221license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
 222all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
 223the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
 224refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
 225
 226If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
 227any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
 228apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
 229circumstances.
 230
 231It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
 232patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
 233such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
 234integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
 235implemented by public license practices.  Many people have made
 236generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
 237through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
 238system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
 239to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
 240impose that choice.
 241
 242This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
 243be a consequence of the rest of this License.
 244
 245  8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
 246certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
 247original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
 248may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
 249those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
 250countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates
 251the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
 252
 253  9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
 254of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will
 255be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
 256address new problems or concerns.
 257
 258Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program
 259specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
 260later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
 261either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
 262Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of
 263this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
 264Foundation.
 265
 266  10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
 267programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
 268to ask for permission.  For software which is copyrighted by the Free
 269Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
 270make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals
 271of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
 272of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
 273
 274                            NO WARRANTY
 275
 276  11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
 277FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN
 278OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
 279PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
 280OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 281MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS
 282TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
 283PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
 284REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
 285
 286  12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
 287WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
 288REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
 289INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
 290OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
 291TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
 292YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
 293PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
 294POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
 295
 296                     END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
 297
 298            How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
 299
 300  If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
 301possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
 302free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
 303
 304  To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
 305to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
 306convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
 307the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
 308
 309    <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
 310    Copyright (C) <year>  <name of author>
 311
 312    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 313    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 314    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 315    (at your option) any later version.
 316
 317    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 318    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 319    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 320    GNU General Public License for more details.
 321
 322    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 323    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 324    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 325
 326
 327Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
 328
 329If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
 330when it starts in an interactive mode:
 331
 332    Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
 333    Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
 334    This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
 335    under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
 336
 337The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
 338parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the commands you use may
 339be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
 340mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
 341
 342You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
 343school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
 344necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:
 345
 346  Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
 347  `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
 348
 349  <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
 350  Ty Coon, President of Vice
 351
 352This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
 353proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you may
 354consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
 355library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
 356Public License instead of this License.
 357