From GayGamer: Biden's Bias?

With Joe Biden tapped to be Barack Obama's vice presidential candidate, the Delaware senator's voting record is being re-examined with a whole new slew of priorities. Among them is Biden's record with respects to technology and consumer advocacy, which some say sports a conspicuous tilt toward big business and big government.

When it comes to copyright issues, net neutrality, P2P networks, wiretapping, and digital privacy, Biden has historically stood with the establishment - backing the RIAA, the FBI, and looking skeptically on many issues dealing with internet rights.

Biden's 2002 bill that would have made felons out of those who executed certain unapproved computer programs or played unauthorized music was backed by content companies but killed by Verizon, Microsoft, Apple, eBay and Yahoo. Biden didn't stop there:

A few months later, Biden signed a letter that urged the Justice Department "to prosecute individuals who intentionally allow mass copying from their computer over peer-to-peer networks." Critics of this approach said that the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, and not taxpayers, should pay for their own lawsuits.

Last year, Biden sponsored an RIAA-backed bill called the Perform Act aimed at restricting Americans' ability to record and play back individual songs from satellite and Internet radio services. (The RIAA sued XM Satellite Radio over precisely this point.)

All of which meant that nobody in Washington was surprised when Biden was one of only four U.S. senators invited to a champagne reception in celebration of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act hosted by the MPAA's Jack Valenti, the RIAA, and the Business Software Alliance.

Further complicating matters for the VP hopeful is his "steadfast" refusal to discuss his technological viewpoints, including his occasional support for internet taxation. There's a lot more going on here than one post can summarize, but CNet's Declan McCullagh has excellent in-depth analysis of the voting record of the man who might very well be our next Vice President.

Joe Biden's pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record [CNet]