Yesterday, the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) announced that Xterasys agreed to settle the lawsuit filed by the former over alleged violation of the GNU General Public License.

The Software Freedom Law Center represents an organization that provides legal representation and related services to protect free software and open source software. Less than a month ago, the Software Freedom Law Center sued Xterasys and two other companies (Monsoon Media and High Gain Anetannas) for using BusyBox, which is a set of tools and utilities frequently included with Linux when it is embedded in a hardware device. BusyBox was issued as General Public License 2.0 code by the two independent developers who wrote it.

A few days ago, even Verizon was sued by the Software Freedom Law Center on similar charges. The powerful carrier was accused of violating BusyBox’s General Public License by using the free software in the Actiontec MI424WR router for its FiOS fiber-optic Internet and television service.

However, Xterasys, a network vendor, decided to settle the infringement lawsuit filed by the Software Freedom Law Center and agreed to cease distributing BusyBox code until the organization can verify that Xterasys is in compliance with the General Public License. The company said that it would also appoint an internal person to ensure GPL compliance. According to the settlement, the vendor will also have to pay an undisclosed amount of money.

"We are very pleased that we have settled the matter and that Xterasys has agreed to comply with the GPL on a going forward basis and take steps to ameliorate the harm caused by their past non-compliance," the SFLC’s Legal Director Dan Ravicher said.

Xterasys is the second company that agreed to settle the suit involving BusyBox, after Monsoon Media.

Will Verizon and High Gain Atennas follow the others’ example?