WIRED: Obama Nominates RIAA Lawyer for Solicitor General.

Verrilli 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.

Until recently, Verrilli also was leading Viacom’s ongoing and flailing $1 billion copyright-infringement fight against YouTube. . . . And in 2008, Verrilli told a federal judge in Minnesota that merely making copyright works available on file sharing networks amounted to copyright infringement — and that no proof of somebody else downloading those files was required.

It is no great surprise to me that the Obama Administration likes a lawyer for Big Entertainment. Those who were hoping for someone who would embody the fierce moral urgency of change, however, may be disappointed. Again.