Bill would send Justin Bieber to prison, group says

{mosads} “Those videos are still on the Internet, so if Bieber doesn’t pull them all down right away, he could be prosecuted and sent to the slammer for five years on felony charges,” Fight for the Future claimed in a press release.

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.