I’ll take my good news where ever I can dredge it up. This will do for today:

By AOIFE WHITE (AP)

BRUSSELS — The European Commission said Monday it may revise copyright law to make it easier for companies like Google Inc. to scan printed books and distribute digital copies over the Internet…

Under Europe’s current patchwork of copyright laws, rights are now managed separately in each of the European Union’s 27 nations, making it difficult to seek permission to republish or digitize content, especially when the rights holder is hard to find.

The European Commission said it would start work next year, with the goal of encouraging mass-scale digitization and suggesting ways for compensating copyright holders. Any suggested changes to European law would have to be approved by EU governments and lawmakers.

The commission said the move was partly triggered by a hearing it held in September where European authors, publishers, libraries and technology companies spoke out about how they would be affected by a deal Google is negotiating in the U.S.

Google has been scanning millions of books still under U.S. copyright. Under a tentative settlement with U.S. authors and publishers, that will cover all books unless the copyright holders object. A judge still needs to approve the settlement after the parties make changes to address U.S. Justice Department concerns. EU antitrust authorities are not examining it.

The real kick-in-the-pants is this:

The European Commission, the EU executive, said that deal would create a situation where “the vast number of European works in U.S. libraries that have been digitized by Google would only be available to consumers and researchers in the U.S. but not in Europe itself.”

Absurdities like this just might prompt the breaking down of copyright walls. Google in the role of Superman is nothing new, but always debatable. In this instance, Superman seems to be doing some good.

At MCN 2009 in Portland, Oregon, next month, Paula Holm Jensen will discuss the Google Book Settlement and how it affects us, not only as individuals but as museums. “More from Less: the e-Book Revolution and Mobile Evolution” will happen on Nov. 14. Peter Brantley of the Internet Archive and Cheryle Robertson from LACMA will round out the roundtable, so to speak, but you the audience will be an important part of the discussion.

All are welcome.