The lead singer of OK Go, a rock band that spawned a cult following through its viral online music videos last year, testified before a House task force today that the Internet must remain an unfettered place if groups like his hope to survive.

As part of his appeal to the task force, Damian Kulash played a wildly popular music video that helped create a global audience for him and his bandmates, propelling them to performances on five continents, sales of more than half a million records and a Grammy.

"To put it simply, without net neutrality, I would not be sitting here today," Mr. Kulash testified before the House Judiciary Committee's Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust Laws.

After watching the video featuring OK Go members dancing on treadmills, Committee Chairman John Conyers, Michigan Democrat, jokingly asked the singer, "There are a number of us up here [on the task force] who could do a better job. Would you be willing to accept a Judiciary Committee video?"

Mr. Kulash assured the chairman that he and his colleagues were welcome to try. In a swipe at the music industry, Mr. Kulash denounced what he called "artificial bottlenecks" created by music industry executives for keeping music away from consumers.

"The new system that's emerging in the music world cannot return to a gatekeeper system -- a system where the success of our ideas was determined solely by the middlemen who delivered them," Mr. Kulash testified, pointing to Rock the Net campaign, a coalition of music artists calling for net neutrality.

A representative from the traditional music industry didn't appear amused. Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America, decried the prevalence of digital piracy he claimed is "killing off the American songwriting profession."

Mr. Carners urged members to support legislation that would allow Internet service providers to monitor and punish online pirates.

However, Mr. Carners was in the minority on the panel. Also testifying on the panel were representatives from the Christian Coalition of America and the American Civil Liberties Union, who basically agreed with Mr. Kulash's call for Internet freedom.

--Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times