Blog Assignment 4

Fair use is using copyrighted material in a different form for a transformative purpose. Transformative means to add a new expression or meaning to the original purpose of the work. Usually this comes as criticism or parody of the copyrighted work. Most times it is easy to distinguish the difference. In Girl Talk's case, it blurs the line. The artist uses songs from other musicians and mashes them together to make a new song all together. He does not distort the original work that much, but instead picks and chooses which lines to use. He is not offering criticism of the work through this or even arranging it in a sense which could be considered parody. I believe it is in the gray area of what has been established as fair use. Artists like Girl Talk who follow his suit usually are very polarizing in terms of fair use. They usually stick to parodying the original work. Many famous youtube users have become well known for their ability to quickly parody new songs that come out. In the video below, this user made himself known through parodies. His videos have no meaning and usually make no sense at all. He has another artist remake the song into an instrumental that sounds very similar to the original. I believe this type of fair use is easier to be accepted because of how clear it is on parodying the copyrighted work. Girl Talk though falls into more controversy because of how he takes whole sound bites from original works.