It's "mixing," not plagiarism, says much-lauded 17-year-old author

Helene Hegemann, a celebrated author and playwright in Berlin who's all of 17 years of age, is at the center of a plagiarism controversy after blogger Deef Pirmasens "last week uncovered material in the novel taken from the less-well-known novel Strobo, by an author writing under the nom de plume Airen. In one case, an entire page was lifted with few changes." Hegemann insists it's remixing, not stealing. She's being pummeled by angry Amazon users.