Think about this for a second: Justin Bieber is famous because of the Internet. He can rent out the Staples Center for a date with his celebrity girlfriend Selena Gomez because he’s made millions with his records, television appearances, singing toothbrushes and his somewhat inexplicable nail polish line. He has a militia made up of swooning female fans who could probably rival the standing armies of some small countries. And it all happened because he was discovered one day by an agent after he put up a video of himself on YouTube singing someone else’s song.
Under the now-shelved Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, or SOPA/PIPA, Bieber might have never become famous. His videos might have been censored and removed for copyright infringement — meaning he never would have been signed to a record label, he never would have made it big and the Internet cornerstone “Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber” blog would never have materialized. Bieber detractors of the world might rejoice at this idea, but to do so would be to entirely miss the point.
The Internet, for the most part, is one of our last great equalizers. Online, anyone can become famous for a prodigious musical talent, sharp political blog, witty Twitter or for inventing Lolcats. On the Internet, you can make crappy slideshows of your sweet 16 party set to a soundtrack of Taylor Swift hits and post it on YouTube or make a blog of photos of Ryan Gosling that you don’t have the rights to and place it alongside a picture of a similarly posed puppy and ask readers to vote for which of the two is cuter. All of these things exist. Most of them are stupid. The fact remains, though, that to vigilantly censor infractions of copyright infringement and intellectual property theft would be a win for big, monied content groups like, say, the Motion Picture Association of America and powerful record labels at the expense of stifling our artistic expression online (or more likely, let’s be real, our enjoyment of other people’s artistic expression while we procrastinate). Just because we have Internet access doesn’t mean we’ll replicate Bieber’s success, but his rise to the top, whether you like him or not, is a testament to the power of the thing most taken for granted every day.
The Internet is a vehicle for inquiry, discovery and even revolution. On the Internet, we can find an apartment or someone to fall in love with. It’s become a cliché, but it’s a place of infinite opportunity. But what makes it fun is bad YouTube videos of would-be cover bands singing copyrighted songs, snarky blog posts illustrated by images of celebrities we can’t afford the rights to and the unauthorized re-imaginings, remixes and redos of pop culture. SOPA/PIPA ignores the fact that our out-of-key Top 40 karaoke attempts on YouTube aren’t conceived as populist strategies to undermine the record label industry. They’re homages. They’re tributes. Without them, the Lolcats, and yes, the free dissemination of information, our world would be a lot less creative, colorful and funny. And Bieber would have never made Selena one less lonely girl.
