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GNU Emacs General Public License [1988] PubRL 1 (1 January 1988)

GNU Emacs General Public License

Version: No

Copyright: No

URL: http://www.free-soft.org/gpl_history/emacs_gpl.html

Type: Software

Media: Software

Country: International

Licence text

DISTRIBUTION

GNU Emacs is free; this means that everyone is free to use it and free to redistribute it on a free basis. GNU Emacs is not in the public domain; it is copyrighted and there are restrictions on its distribution, but these restrictions are designed to permit everything that a good cooperating citizen would want to do. What is not allowed is to try to prevent others from further sharing any version of GNU Emacs that they might get from you. The precise conditions are found in the GNU Emacs General Public License that comes with Emacs and also appears following this section.
The easiest way to get a copy of GNU Emacs is from someone else who has it. You need not ask for permission to do so, or tell any one else; just copy it.

If you have access to the Internet, you can get the latest distribution version of GNU Emacs from host prep.ai.mit.edu using anonymous login. See the file /u2/emacs/GETTING.GNU.SOFTWARE on that host to find out about your options for copying and which files to use.

You may also receive GNU Emacs when you buy a computer. Computer manufacturers are free to distribute copies on the same terms that apply to everyone else. These terms require them to give you the full sources, including whatever changes they may have made, and to permit you to redistribute the GNU Emacs received from them under the usual terms of the General Public License. In other words, the program must be free for you when you get it, not just free for the manufacturer.

If you cannot get a copy in any of those ways, you can order one from the Free Software Foundation. Though Emacs itself is free, our distribution service is not. An order form is included at the end of manuals printed by the Foundation. It is also included in the file ETC /DISTRIB in the Emacs distribution. For further information, write to
 

        Free Software Foundation
        675 Mass Ave
        Cambridge, MA 02139
        USA

The income from distribution fees goes to support the foundation's purpose: the development of more free software to distribute just like GNU Emacs.

If you find GNU Emacs useful, please send a donation to the Free Software Foundation. This will help support development of the rest of the GNU system, and other useful software beyond that. Your donation is tax deductible.
 

GNU Emacs General Public License

(Clarified 11 Feb. 1988) The license agreements of most software companies keep you at the mercy of those companies. By contrast, our general public license is intended to give everyone the right to share GNU Emacs. To make sure that you get the rights we want you to have, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. Hence this license agreement.
Specifically, we want to make sure that you have the right to give away copies of Emacs, that you receive source code or else can get it if you want it, that you can change Emacs or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things.

To make sure that everyone has such rights, we have to forbid you to deprive anyone else of these rights. For example, if you distribute copies of Emacs, 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 tell them their rights.

Also, for our own protection, we must make certain that everyone finds out that there is no warranty for GNU Emacs. If Emacs is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not what we distributed, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on our reputation.

Therefore we (Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation, Inc.): make the following terms which say what you must do to be allowed to distribute or change GNU Emacs.

Copying Policies 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of GNU Emacs source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each file a valid copyright notice "Copyright 1988 Free Software Foundation, Inc.'' (or with whatever year is appropriate); keep intact the notices on all files that refer to this License Agreement and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the GNU Emacs program a copy of this License Agreement along with the program. You may charge a distribution fee for the physical act of transferring a copy.

2. You may modify your copy or copies of GNU Emacs source code or any portion of it, and copy and distribute such modifications under the terms of Paragraph 1 above, provided that you also do the following:

- cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating who last changed such files and the date of any change; and

- cause the whole of any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is a derivative of GNU Emacs or any part thereof, to be licensed at no charge to all third parties on terms identical to those contained in this License Agreement (except that you may choose to grant more extensive warranty protection to some or all third parties, at your option).

- if the modified program serves as a text editor, cause it, when started running in the simplest and usual way, to print an announcement including a valid copyright notice "Copyright 1988 Free Software Foundation, Inc.'' (or with the year that is appropriate), saying 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 Agreement.

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

Mere aggregation of another unrelated program with this program (or its derivative) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other program under the scope of these terms.

3. You may copy and distribute GNU Emacs (or a portion or derivative of it, under Paragraph 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Paragraphs 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

- accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Paragraphs 1 and 2 above; or,

- accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party free (except for a nominal shipping charge) a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Paragraphs 1 and 2 above; or,

- accompany it with the information you received as to where the corresponding source code may be obtained. (This alternative is allowed only for non commercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form alone.)

For an executable file, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains; but, as a special exception, it need not include source code for modules which are standard libraries that accompany the operating system on which the executable file runs.

4. You may not copy, sub license, distribute or transfer GNU Emacs except as expressly provided under this License Agreement. Any attempt otherwise to copy, sub license, distribute or transfer GNU Emacs is void and your rights to use GNU Emacs under this License agreement shall be automatically terminated. However, parties who have received computer software programs from you with this License Agreement will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

5. If you wish to incorporate parts of GNU Emacs into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the Free Software Foundation. We have not yet worked out a simple rule that can be stated here, but we will often permit this. We 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.

Your comments and suggestions about our licensing policies and our software are welcome! Please contact the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139.

NO WARRANTY

BECAUSE GNU EMACS IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, WE PROVIDE ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE STATE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING, FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION, INC, RICHARD M. STALLMAN AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE GNU EMACS "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 GNU EMACS PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW WILL FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION, INC., RICHARD M. STALLMAN, AND/OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND REDISTRIBUTE GNU EMACS AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST MONIES, OR OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH PROGRAMS NOT DISTRIBUTED BY FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION, INC.) THE PROGRAM, EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY.