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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brian Gibbons" data-source="post: 4967457" data-attributes="member: 7369">Without seeing the actual settlement agreement, it's impossible to say why the individuals involved made the decisions they did.One obvious explanation as to why someone would sign an agreement for such a ruinous amount (when a defaulting defendant gets a judgment for far less) is that they find the terms more attractive than what they think they'll face with a court judgment.For example (and we have no evidence that this is the case), it's entirely possible for a defendant to agree to a huge settlement amount so that the plaintiff can trumpet it for deterrence purposes, but have the plaintiff actually agree to accept only a small portion of that amount, waiving the rest if the defendant does not engage in any further infringement, or the plaintiff might agree to a payment plan of a small amount each year, with it being unlikely that the defendant will actually live long enough to pay the full judgment.  Sometimes it's more about the press release than the actual money.It is also possible that Nolan's <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/18/entertainment/main5095758.shtml" target="_blank">original explanation</a> for the infringement may have played some part in the settlement, if (and we have no actual evidence that this was the case) it seemed that the story was disprovable and might lead to further difficulties if he continued to try to defend against the charges.</blockquote>

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