Shouldn’t this be against the law?

The thing about Memes like the Ermergerd Girl or Scumbag Steve is that you never think about the people who are behind them. It’s kind of funny, even, to think that those people are just people who got unlucky (or lucky?) enough to have their funny photo be discovered and turned into a meme.

If a photo of me was picked up somehow I do not think I would have as positive an outlook as these two examples seem to have, particularly if my photo was used in a more negative way like scumbag Steve’s photo. A meme like that would affect the impression that people have of you and could potentially affect the way you are treated in, for example, a job interview or even by people on the street.

Having a meme made like that of me is kind of a nightmare and makes me want to enhance my privacy via Facebook and Twitter settings but at the same time there is basically nothing these people really could have done to avoid their unwanted fame. It feels to me like using someone’s photo without permission would be against the law but there is no way to police the internet like that and that scares me.