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Comment by dTal | Hacker News Reader

Wait, so if research is government funded, said government can just... suppress results? That's horrifyingly corrupt. That right there is a scandal.

In that position, I would be tempted to take a stand and release the data as originally planned, while blowing the lid off the whole corruption. Write in big letters on the website "THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE THIS". If you're worried about your career... why? What is the point of your career as a scientist if you won't take a stand like that?

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> If you're worried about your career... why? What is the point of your career as a scientist if you won't take a stand like that?

Not GP, but 'earning a living' can be quite a compelling reason.

Scientist or capitalist, can't be both.

Sure, because only a capitalist would want to live somewhere or have something to eat /s

No, I'm simply saying that your primary motivation can either be science XOR money. If you are willing to suppress results for money, even money you need to eat, you can't call yourself a scientist anymore. Someone is paying you to do something, but it isn't science.

To clarify, I'm not saying it makes you a bad person if you choose to eat. Just not a scientist. There's a reason we give professors tenure.

That's why US needs a job protection law.

In Italy you can't be fired for your opinions.

Never!

If it's available for a fee than it's not suppression, though it is an impedance to the free flow of information. And to be fair it does cost money to host large collections of data.

I'm not sure what "suppression" is, if not a deliberate impedance to the free flow of information. It need not be absolute censorship - indeed, absolute censorship is likely to be a less effective suppressant, due to the Streisand effect.

> That right there is a scandal

I agree with that. No government should ever give itself legal power to withhold scientific information from the public that funded it. In practice that's making life hard for journalists and other scientists and in principle it's a sign of authoritarian tendencies.

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