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to play/run unapproved music or programs. It failed in 2002, and again when reintroduced in 2004.

In August 2007 Biden became future President Barack Obama's running mate. The selection raised questions. Techmedia news site CNet's political correspondent Declan McCullagh pointed to Biden's past, saying "these pro-copyright views don't exactly jibe with what Obama promised". On 4 November 2008, Obama was elected President and Biden Vice-President.

Post-election, events unfolded contrary to the expectations of those who had championed Obama and his reformist views. His appointments to key roles in early 2009 were welcomed more by lobbyists such as the MPAA and RIAA, rather than copyright reformers such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In January, the role of Deputy Attorney General went to David Ogden, who came from IP-savvy law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. Future Megaupload prosecutor Jay Prabhu worked at the firm until 2002, when it was just Wilmer Cutler & Pickering. A media and entertainment law specialist, Ogden had successfully defended the Copyright Term Extension Act against Lawrence Lessig at the Supreme Court.

Ogden had previously been a partner at Jenner and Block, where another newly appointed official, Tom Perrelli, had also been a partner. The firm was not known for entertainment until Perrelli turned up in 2002 and went looking for RIAA work, according to Legal Times, "at a time when Internet file-sharing entities like Napster were threatening the music business". Perrelli, who returned to the firm in 2012, was described by CNet as the RIAA's "favourite lawyer". The firm would also act for the MPAA in the upcoming Megaupload criminal case. The legal directory Chambers & Partners USA called Perrelli "one of the leading media and entertainment lawyers in the United States".

Another Jenner & Block lawyer was elevated in February, with Donald Verrilli being named Associate Attorney General (he then became Deputy White House Counsel and is now Solicitor General). The lawyer had represented the RIAA in a case (later overturned) which found it was illegal for music to be made available for file sharing even if none had actually been shared. Verrilli represented ViaCom in its copyright infringement case against YouTube. Acting for MGM, he forced a settlement out of Grokster with the successful argument that peer-to-peer networks could be held liable for copyright infringement. He cited the Sony Betamax case which first dealt with the "fair use" of technologies, saying there was no "free pass" for networks just because of an argument "there were non-infringing users out there".

Also appointed from the copyright block was Neil MacBride, Vice President of Anti-Piracy and counsel for the Business Sortware Alliance and future Megaupload prosecutor. MacBride was made associate

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