The Low Down On The Mash Up

This is certainly new vocabulary to me, Fair use: part of copyright law that permits new makers, in some situations, to quote copyrighted material without asking permission or paying the owners. I'm not sure if there are so many mash ups and videos on you tube and other sites that I feel desensitized and don't really realize there is copyright laws. Has anyone else forgotten about this? Now that I'm thinking about it I feel it has gotten a little hard to control what is being posted on sites where you can share your own opinions and express yourself. After reading the articles online and watching the movie Tupac: Resurrection I'm feeling that these mash ups are a positive thing. There is one thing that is very negative however which you can't just forget about and that is the loss of money and control of the material. I certainly wouldn't like it if I produced a film and it got distorted and lost money because other people were taking away from it. But in the end as internet becomes a bigger outlet for self expression and and art form you have to expect these things will happen.
The movie Tupac: Resurrection directed by Lauren Lanzin and executive produced by Tupacs own mother Afeni Shakur I felt was a great mash up movie. With the help of his mother home videos and writings of Tupac would have never been put out there. I felt this helped give a more accurate account of his life, it defiantly dug deeper into his life. I liked the artistic level of the movie too it grabbed my attention and kept me entertained. With all sorts of different images, readings, and interviews by Tupac it was a media rich film. The documentary form of the mash up I feel is more effective than the say short clip on You Tube because a lot of those short films are are for fun and are remade to be funny.
In the article Recut, Reframe, Recycle I watched the short clip and I agree with the woman speaking. It is part of our pop culture and it is a platform for discussion. I don't feel people making mash ups is really all that bad it's an art form to me someones point of view on something and most of these mash ups are very entertaining. They spoke of putting filters on You Tube and I'm against that. If they have created this website that is one of the most popular websites it the world where people have the freedom to create and open new windows then don't all of the sudden take that away. Can a mash up really be all that bad? Or is it just entertaining?