How do I copy vmx,vmdks or vmware.logs of active VMs ?

I need to copy vmx-files, vmdk-descriptor-files and vmware.logs via ssh.

While doing so I noticed that sometimes - not always - these files are locked when the VM is running.
At the moment I skip those locked files and go on copying other files and come back later to copy them.

Is there a better way to do that ?
The commands I tried so far are:
cp name.vmx name.vmx-bak
less name.vmx > name.vmx-bak

or cat name.vmx > name.vmx-bak

Just curious - if I use Datastorebrowser or WinSCP I can always copy open files - why cant I do so with cp ?