It does not surprise me in the least. Xerox is an incredibly political and bizantine company. (When I worked there as a contractor I saw a number of cool projects get pulled apart due to political manuevers and turf battles.) I sometimes wonder how they have lasted this long... On Thu, 14 Jun 2001, John Young wrote:
A Wall Street Journal article today on the SDMI/DCMA lawsuit by Ed Felten, et al, includes this nasty:
"The decision to file the lawsuit hasn't been without consequences. Dr. Drew Dean is scheduled to resign from the Xerox research center tomorrow and says, without elaborating, that the resignation is 'related' to the DMCA lawsuit. A Xerox spokesman says that the legal challenge is 'not something the corporation wished to be involved in' but declined to comment further."
Drew, like Dan Wallach, was a grad student of Felten's and the Xerox job was his first, I believe.
Will Princeton boot Felten, will Rice boot Wallach? Depends on the courage of the trustees to resist their buddies' pressure, as half-dead Xerox could not.
All hail the principled scientists, buck up trustees.
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