The musician Gregg Gillis A K A Girl Talk is making a creative career by borrowing music from established artists. His latest album is a creative compilation of 300 songs. So far he hasn't been sued for copyright "infringement," but that might be due to the fact that his best selling work has sold only 20,000 copies, not enough to rile up the copyright capos. (The usually voluble RIAA didn't comment for the story.)
Fair use is the name of his game. He defends his modus operandi by saying that he what he does is "to take something so familiar and twist it into a new entity."
He slices and dices old music so that it becomes his new creation. Game over for copyright.
Here is the
article from the Wall Street Journal, June 27, p. B7.