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Bill would send Justin Bieber to prison, group says
An anti-piracy bill pending in the Senate could send pop star Justin Bieber to prison for up to five years, according to a group lobbying to kill the legislation.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), would make it a felony for users to post unlicensed content online 10 times in 180 days. The bill is backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Justin Bieber first gained fame by posting videos of himself singing famous pop songs. According to the group Fight for the Future, those videos could land the 17 year-old pop star in prison under the proposed legislation.
Linden Zakula, a spokesman for Sen. Klobuchar, said the bill would not, in fact, send Justin Bieber to jail.
“The bill language specifically targets people who willfully engage in copyright infringement for commercial advantage or private financial gain," he said. "The bill does not criminalize uploading videos to YouTube or streaming videos at home.”
Fight for the Future is launching a campaign against the measure and has set up a website, FreeBieber.org. The site is complete with digitally-altered photographs of police hauling Beiber away in handcuffs and the pop star in an orange jumpsuit sitting in a prison cell. A headline on the site states: "Justice faces 5 brutal years in prison."
"What's genuinely troubling is that this bill applies to a massive slice of social media activity," said Fight for the Future co-founder Holmes Wilson. The group claims the legislation would apply to karaoke videos, footage of people dancing to music and videos with music playing in the background.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill in June.
This post was updated at 5:44 p.m.
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