appropriation can be original

I disagree with the first part of this quote, from Barry Slotnick, head of the intellectual property litigation group at the law firm Loeb & Loeb. I agree with the second:

(1) "Fair use is a means to allow people to comment on a pre-existing work, not a means to allow someone to take a pre-existing work and recreate it into their own work."

(2) "What you can't do is substitute someone else's creativity for your own."

And considering how original Girl Talk is, I think it unlikely anyone will sue them. It's far more likely a record company will sue some much more ham-fisted appropriator who has not created something original out of pre-existing pieces.