Wired reports that MIT and Hewlett-Packard are creating DSpace, "a long-term, sustainable digital repository."

The article notes that "these archives may provide more efficient, open access to research than costly commercial journals, which scholars often rely upon to publish their work and establish prestige." So, on the one hand, it would seem that this project may answer the concerns about access expressed by many academics, such as the Public Library of Science.

Yet, the DSpace home page states that "all contributed materials may be subject to access control. Individuals and academic communities may determine who will have access to archived works." Is this truly a benevolent enterprise? Or is it ultimately about universities wresting control of the intellectual property produced by their faculty away from journals? I'm not personally convinced that university administrations can be trusted to have this kind of control. After all, who ends up with the copyright here?