This wacky looking man above is Gregg Gillis, or better known as Girl Talk. Gillis used to be an engineer... until he quit in May of 2007 to focus solely on something else. What is that something else you may ask? By night, Gillis is a disc jockey that specializes in mashup music. Some people may think this is just a little hobby, but Gillis has released several albums under his name, performs in several clubs, and has created a large fan base.
So what is mashing music exactly? Girl Talk produces mashup-style remixes, which consists of a dozen or more unauthorized samples from different songs to create a mashup. Mashing music may sound harmless and innocent. In reality, Gillis is sampling intellectual property of other artist which puts him in an awkward situation with Copyright Law. Some may call this stealing, but is he really?
Gillis claims that he has "Fair Use" of the samples because the character of the use is transformative. Section 107 of Copyright Law solely protects him and his music, because his music is considered a fair use on intellectual property since the material is transformed enough to change the context and essentially become something completely new and original. In the end, Girl Talk is indestructible to Copyright infringement by taking existing songs and transforming them into his own original song. So, as long as Gillis keeps the motive of his music sampling transformative enough to generate a completely new and original work, Girl Talk will live on.
