Lessig and Remix

Lawrence Lessig's REMIX, Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, discusses his view of how balanced copyright contributes to a healthy culture. In his preface, Lessig wrote that copyright, when properly balanced, is "essential to inspiring certain forms of creativity." Throughout the first chapter, he continued to argue his position that without proper balance in copyright, there would be a much poorer culture.
REMIX, like Jonathan Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism, presented the idea that current copyright laws are unbalanced and hindering creativity. Without some kind of influence from other works, many new works would not have been produced. Although incorporating an ability for inspiration should be an area of focus for balanced copyright, the continuous growth and additions of new multimedia in current society proposes a new question for copyright: How does/should the balance shift when so much information is available through so many forms of technology?
The balance of copyright should be dependent on two variables: the protection of the author's work, and the protection of creativity through certain influence. How can these variables be balanced when there is so much authored and "original" work to be monitored and protected?
Both Lethem and Lessig discussed how current copyright hinder creativity, but shouldn't certain ideas and other authored works have absolute protection? OR, are there just too many vehicles and too much information to even try to keep up?
Whether or not this balance can be achieved with all of the new forms of multimedia has yet to be seen, but for both the "original" author's and future creator's sakes, I hope an equilibrium can be achieved and maintained.