USL V. BSDi - Terms of The Settlement

Terms of The Settlement

For many years, the details of the settlement had been kept secret between the parties, with the general public consensus being that USL and BSDi had mutually agreed not to litigate further over the software that would later be developed into the free BSDs — an agreement reached after the judge denied the injunction against BSDi, and after the UNIX IP had been purchased from AT&T by Novell.

In November 2004, a copy of the USL v. BSDi settlement agreement was posted to the Groklaw website, obtained from The Regents of the University of California's Office of the General Counsel under the State of California Public Records Law. This crucial link in UNIX legal history is now public.

The salient points were:

• 4.4BSD-lite to be released containing no disputed files. University to encourage licensees to switch from Net-2.
• University to cease distribution of certain files.
• USL to grant three months' grace period to users of disputed files.
• Certain files distributed by University to carry USL copyright notice.
• Certain files distributed by USL to carry University copyright notices.
• USL to permit free distribution of certain files.
• University not to actively assist in legal attempts to challenge USL's rights to certain files.