Sincere question: Why would anyone facing a shutdown of their department, agency, lab, whatever, not copy all the data they could and take it with them? This is the Library of Alexandria we're talking about here. Any data not copied may not be saved.
In many cases it's illegal to clone data, and many well meaning people don't want to do "bad things". Whether out of fear or honor, there's enough reasons to leave things alone and hope for the best.
But the preservation of data, IMO, is more important than any socially constructed laws.
Comments
I think most of it probably boils down to an attack on objective truth & reality. It's hard to make empirical claims w/o empirical data!
But the preservation of data, IMO, is more important than any socially constructed laws.
Cell lines. Freezers full of archival samples and ice cores. Libraries that extend to millions of square feet.
And so on.