(As for me, I'm signing the petition -- and granting Google blanket permission to index my works and make them available to readers. Because, y'know, I'm happy for people to be able to find my work in the library; but it'd be nice if they asked for permission first.)

I agree with your sentiment, and I signed the petition as well. Have you formally granted Google permission somehow, and if so how? I would be interested in doing the same. I need to talk to my publisher (O'Reilly) to make sure they are clear about the indexing rights question as well, but they have always seemed more than reasonable about this sort of thing.