Senate Confirms Former RIAA Lawyer for Solicitor General

[rayofreason]

Source: Wired

The Senate late Monday confirmed former Recording Industry Association of America lawyer Donald Verrilli Jr.to serve as the nation’s solicitor general.

Verilli, the White House deputy counsel, assumes the powerful position left vacant by Elena Kagan, who was elevated to the Supreme Court last year. The vote was 72-16 after lawmakers brokered a last-minute deal to avoid a threatened filibuster.

The solicitor general is charged with defending the government before the Supreme Court, and files friend-of-the court briefs in cases in which the government believes there is a significant legal issue. The office also determines which cases it will bring to the Supreme Court for review. Verrilli had told senators that he would resign if Obama asked him to take a position “based on partisan political considerations or other illegitimate reasons.”

Verrilli, one of at least five former RIAA attorneys appointed to the administration, is best known for leading the recording industry’s legal charge against music- and movie-sharing site Grokster. That 2003 case ultimately led to Grokster’s demise, when the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a lower court’s pro-RIAA verdict. Grokster produced a legal foundation which the RIAA used against file sharing service LimeWire, which shuttered last year and agreed to pay the labels $115 million to settle a lawsuit.

Read more: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/senate-confirms-verrilli/

---

Hey, if we sue everybody who has ever made a copy of a CD or a DVD we could solve the deficit problem!

[zalinda]

1. Does Obama know ANY ONE not connected to big business?

Apparently not.

zalinda

[Freddie Stubbs]

2. Hilda Solis?

[mikelgb]

3. lol old Token Solis

still used as the "see there is a progressive! nyah!"

With clout like Hilda Solis who needs more progressives in the Admin? :sarcasm:

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. Shaun Donovan?

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. Lisa P. Jackson?

[Heywood J]

4. Would this come with a duty to recuse on cases related to the former employer?

If he had to recuse (or at least disclose) on anything related to his former job, I could overlook his past employment. If the answer is no, it was a poor choice. What's his other record like?

As someone virulently opposed to DRM and most other practices of studios and labels, I still know that lawyers don't always believe in the same things as their clients and I'd be willing to cut him slack with conditions.

[No Elephants]

6. Typical Obama appointment.