Surely the solution to this problem is to put the data into the public domain after a reasonable embargo period of maybe a few months or a year?
It would be ironic and painful if open data policies resulted in scientists leaving the public sector, and I'd really like to see more open data.
Sure, sometimes the right question will be starkly obvious, but no system is perfect.
I'd agree, but my knowledge of the academic community is that credit goes by published papers and, secondarily, how often you get cited. This seems like one of those things where we just don't have a great system for giving people credit, and the one we do have is problematic.
(Wealth is like that, too. Also, resumes.)
Disclaimer: I work for a partner company.
I think the standard release delay is six months. Though I'd say its less about exclusive access to data than it is about ensuring the consistency of that data. MANY things change in the early days of a mission.