My dad points out that after the databases have disintegrated in 20 years, the books will still be around for after 200 years. He worries about massive loss of cultural data.
Yeah, I would guess that the interviewees (who weren't the full CR cast members, which were all the initial people interviewed) were probably not meaningfully consulted given that all of the interviews were removed, and it is a bummer for some of them no doubt. I mean, I get the impression that Chris Perkins' position at WotC seems to give him all the exposure he personally wants and he was probably there in large part to maintain strong CR-WotC relations, but most of the guests they interviewed were relatively obscure actors who probably did the interviews primarily for the profile boost, now abruptly cut short. But, whatever, small time actors are lucky when things they are involved in ever get shown, they certainly don't operate assuming they will be available for all time.
It’s also not just whether it’s still around. Digital stored anywhere but locally can be completely altered. It will be very difficult for future people trying to understand the culture of our time to do so due to this.
Does your dad realise that data can be ported from one hard drive to another?
I'd like to see a book pull off that trick! 
The bigger problem is incompatible formats that aren't regularly updated or converted when the older format becomes obsolete.Does your dad realise that data can be ported from one hard drive to another?
There are of course more nuances to this discussion, but in general your dad's point is a bit off the mark.
One of the nuances I mentioned. This argument applies to both mediums (and is solvable for both mediums). How do you convert a degraded book into a new book?
