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For example, on rare occasions, there may be a special need to encourage the
widest possible use of a certain library, so that it becomes a de-facto standard. To
achieve this, non-free programs must be allowed to use the library. A more frequent
case is that a free library does the same job as widely used non-free libraries. In this
case, there is little to gain by limiting the free library to free software only, so we use
the Lesser General Public License.
In other cases, permission to use a particular library in non-free programs enables a
greater number of people to use a large body of free software. For example, permis-
sion to use the GNU C Library in non-free programs enables many more people to
use the whole GNU operating system, as well as its variant, the GNU/Linux operat-
ing system.
Although the Lesser General Public License is Less protective of the users’ free-
dom, it does ensure that the user of a program that is linked with the Library has the
freedom and the wherewithal to run that program using a modified version of the
Library.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
Pay close attention to the difference between a “work based on the library” and
a “work that uses the library”. The former contains code derived from the library,
whereas the latter must be combined with the library in order to run.
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL2)
