Justin Bieber may seem like a wholesome young man but that’s just part of his diabolical genius. Turns out that the teen pop star could be facing up to five years in prison, thanks to bill S.978.
According to the Hollywood Reporter , congress is currently debating bill S.978, which would make it a felony to stream unauthorized copyrighted material online. Violators of the potential new law could face five years in prison.
The bill, which was introduced last May, has gathered support from the entertainment industry, but it wasn’t until this week that bill S.978 got national attention.
Why? Well, a new online campaign called “Free Bieber” has started to go viral.
According to the “Free Bieber” campaign:
“A new bill in Congress makes posting a video containing any copyrighted work a felony– with up to 5 years in prison. But wait… didn’t Justin Bieber get famous by posting YouTube videos of himself singing copyrighted R&B songs? Yep. If this bill passes, he could get 5 years in jail.”
And just in case you haven’t been following Bieber’s career since the beginning, here’s a video of him singing (a potentially illegal) version of a Chris Brown song.
Tiffiniy Cheng, director of Fight for the Future, who organized the “Free Bieber” campaign, said:
“Since copyright law is so expansive, it applies to lots of completely harmless and common things: like singing a song, dancing to background music, or posting a video of a kids’ school play.”
What do you think about Bill S.978? Do you support it even though it could land Justin Bieber in prison? Because it could?
