Christos/Detroitartist.org
Girl Talk has been featured in the New York Times. The title of the article is “Steal This Hook? D.J. Skirts Copyright Law.”
The D.J. Girl Talk has won positive reviews for his new album and news media attention for its Radiohead-style pay-what-you-want pricing, and on Friday night he is scheduled to play a high-profile gig at the All Points West festival in Jersey City. Not bad for an artist whose music may be illegal.
Girl Talk, whose real name is Gregg Gillis, makes danceable musical collages out of short clips from other people’s songs; there are more than 300 samples on “Feed the Animals,” the album he released online at illegalart.net in June. He doesn’t get the permission of the composers to use these samples, as United States copyright law mostly requires, because he maintains that the brief snippets he works with are covered by copyright law’s “fair use” principle (and perhaps because doing so would be prohibitively expensive).
I’m guessing that this exposure is going to be bringing him lawsuits. I’m all for fair use, but as vague of a clause as it is, I’m not sure his chances would be that great against an army of expensive lawyers.