All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. ...

-- John Donne

Jonathan Lethem wrote this 'remix' in the February issue of Harper's Magazine.

He elicited a response from Larry Lessig in the April issue (which is not yet available online).

Consider a side dish of Richard Posner's The Little Book of Plagiarism, which Publishers Weekly calls "a fascinating historical tour of the subject, [in which] he dismisses the idea that good art must be totally original." Taken on its own, it seems preposterous that anyone would confine "good art" to that which is "totally" original. (What is?)