Defending Girl Talk

Starting the basics, fair use is the reproduction of copyright material for different, circumstantial purposes without having to pay a fee. If you really look at mashups, there is a strong defense for the clarification of fair use with this music.  One major aspect that comes into play with defending Girl Talk is that it hasn't undermined the sale of the music productions he uses. For an example, people who buy Girl Talk concert tickets aren't normally the ones who are running after oldies songs because they were incorporated in the music. People are there to see Girl Talk play his mashups and act out like he does in the concerts.

However, this is where the defense of the Girl Talk case really comes in, which is transformative use. The first main defense of this is that Girl Talk is using something new and different to the work. The documentary talked about how other songs, and some very famous, have used the same beats and just put a little tweak of a spin on it throughout several years and decades. Even though there may be the same notes from a piece he is the one that is mashing up the beats together to make a song. This then makes it new and different fitting the fourth part of fair use.

I understand that the courts and lawmakers wanted to leave the definition open to a similar standpoint of freedom of speech but is this actual vagueness limiting us more that it should? It appears that with this new wave of technology and the digital age that the courts tend to shut down under the big conglomerate media corporations that go after the money of those who apparently committed a crime. This is limiting the creativity of artists and at some point, hopefully in the near future, will be redefined to help creativity get the upper hand back.