I share your views somewhat, and I very much agree with your arguments. I feel like people are being way too conservative in their assessments of propriety and we end up in difficult situations such as this one. The nature of memes is for them to be shared unattributed, and they're usually made from what would be considered "copyrighted material".

Is the whole of reddit, 4chan and 9gag based off picture piracy? I think it's more of an evolution of the rewriting principle of humanity. Everything we have is a remake. We take what is around us and we mold it to be our own original work.

However, I also believe that we should try to give authors as much credit as possible because we would like, as well, to be given credit as much as possible when our works are taken for other purposes.

But if a writing I make ends up in the hands of millions of people who have forgotten my name, I don't want some auntie whipping their child for telling the story of a long-lost author without proper attribution.