FAQ module

                    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE                         Version 2, June 1991     Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,   51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA   Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies   of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.                                Preamble      The licenses for most software are designed to take away your  freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public  License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free  software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This  General Public License applies to most of the Free Software  Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to  using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by  the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to  your programs, too.      When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not  price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you  have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for  this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it  if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it  in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.      To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid  anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.  These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you  distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.      For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether  gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that  you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the  source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their  rights.      We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and  (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,  distribute and/or modify the software.      Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain  that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free  software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we  want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so  that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original  authors' reputations.      Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software  patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free  program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the  program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any  patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.      The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and  modification follow.                        GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE     TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION      0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains  a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed  under the terms of this General Public License.  The "Program", below,  refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"  means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:  that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,  either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another  language.  (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in  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. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's  source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you  conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate  copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the  notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;  and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License  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.      2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion  of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and  distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1  above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:        a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices      stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.        b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in      whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any      part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third      parties under the terms of this License.        c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively      when run, you must cause it, when started running for such      interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an      announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a      notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide      a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under      these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this      License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but      does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on      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.      3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,  under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of  Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:        a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable      source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections      1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,        b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three      years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your      cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete      machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be      distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium      customarily used for software interchange; or,        c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer      to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is      allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you      received the program in object code or executable form with such      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.      4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program  except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt  otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is  void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.  However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under  this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such  parties remain in full compliance.      5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not  signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or  distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are  prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by  modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the  Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and  all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying  the Program or works based on it.      6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the  Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the  original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to  these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further  restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.  You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to  this License.      7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent  infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),  conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or  otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not  excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot  distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this  License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you  may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent  license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by  all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then  the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to  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.      8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in  certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the  original copyright holder who places the Program under this License  may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding  those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among  countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates  the limitation as if written in the body of this License.      9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions  of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will  be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to  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.      10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free  programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author  to ask for permission.  For software which is copyrighted by the Free  Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes  make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals  of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and  of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.                                NO WARRANTY      11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY  FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN  OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES  PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED  OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF  MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS  TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE  PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,  REPAIR OR CORRECTION.      12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING  WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR  REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,  INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING  OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED  TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY  YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER  PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE  POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.                         END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS                How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs      If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest  possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it  free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.      To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest  to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively  convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least  the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.        <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>      Copyright (C) <year>  <name of author>        This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify      it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by      the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or      (at your option) any later version.        This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,      but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of      MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the      GNU General Public License for more details.        You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along      with this program; if not, write to the Free Software 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:        Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author      Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.      This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it      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:      Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program    `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.      <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989    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 Lesser General  Public License instead of this License.