Re: Settlements

[Hyman Rosen]

On 2/26/2010 10:29 AM, Alexander Terekhov wrote:
> Hyman Rosen wrote:
> > On 2/26/2010 10:07 AM, Alexander Terekhov wrote:
> > > When was the last time that plaintiffs in a GPL case filed a
> > > (confidential) settlement to the court to be rolled into a
> >   >  court order?
> >
> > What for?
>
> This is done so that the court which was initially assigned the case may
> retain jurisdiction over it. The court is then free to modify its order
> as necessary to achieve justice in the case, and a party that breaches
> the settlement may be held in contempt of court, rather than facing only
> a civil claim for the breach. In cases where confidentiality is required
> by the parties, the court order may refer to another document which is
> not disclosed, but which may be revealed to prove a breach of the
> settlement.
>
> End Quote.
>
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_(litigation)>

Same source:
    The settlement of the lawsuit defines legal requirements of the
    parties, and is often put in force by an order of the court after
    a joint stipulation  by the parties. In other situations (as where
    the claims have been satisfied by the payment of a certain sum of
    money) the plaintiff and defendant can simply file a notice that
    the case has been dismissed.

After each one of the SFLC's cases have ended, the defendants have
made the GPLed sources properly available. So despite the settlement
agreements not being filed with the court, the SFLC has achieved its
desired outcome.