Gregg Gillis

Conflicts over copyrights are commonplace on the Internet. But can the Web also be a sanctuary from the law?

The laptop DJ Gregg Gillis, who performs under the name Girl Talk, hopes so. He recently released his fourth album, "Feed the Animals," online in the pay-what-you-want style that Radiohead popularized.

The album is almost custom-made for lawsuits. It was made entirely with samples, a mishmash of more than 200 artists, from Roy Orbison to Lil' Wayne.

One song, "Still Here," includes Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Radiohead, Ace of Base, Fergie, Kenny Loggins, Cat Stevens, 50 Cent - and that's not even half of the song's samples. Who knew that Blackstreet's "No Diggity" went so well with both Kanye West's "Flashing Lights" and Radiohead's "15 Step"?

Gillis did not invent the mash-up and he's far from the first to profit on the gimmick of combining music that doesn't normally mesh. But he may have taken things as far as they go, jumping from sample to sample nearly every few seconds.

Enterprising fans have listed the samples to all the songs on "Feed the Animals" on the album's Wikipedia page. Some have also made music videos for the tunes, mixing the relevant video for each sample.

Chris Beckman, 20, has done this for four of the Girl Talk songs: www.youtube.com/user/BunnyGreenhouse. It's an even more head-spinning experience than listening to the album.

On his YouTube page, Beckman writes, "Please don't sue me for copyright infringement. I'm just recycling culture." He adds, "Art is too important to be only used once."

More precarious is Gillis' position. He posted the album online just days after finishing it. (To download it, follow the link on his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/girltalk.)

By releasing the album online and making payment unnecessary, Gillis and Illegal Art are hoping to weaken the enticement of copyright infringement lawsuits. If they obviously made a lot of money, the suits would surely follow. Gillis wants success, but not too much.