Mistakes and Consquences

So as usual, I've been on the Rav. I'm not there as much as I used to be. Trying to cut down and all that. But I was there today and I was reading a little thread (all names and links are withheld to protect the not-so-innocent) about a girl who decided to use a well known document hosting website to upload a bunch of knitting patterns. Some of these patterns were free patterns, and some were patterns she had purchased and scanned in. Others were patterns she or someone had bought and downloaded.

After this phenomenon was discovered, some of the designers of these patterns went to this well known document site and made complaints. The complaints were taken very seriously, because this particular girl had not just uploaded the docs, she had created a group specifically for sharing said patterns with others. After enough complaints, apparently the site banned her and removed all her documents.

Contrary to where you all think I am going with this, this post is not about the actions of said girl, or the copyright issues stemming from such behavior. HA! Gotcha. You totally thought I was going there, didn't you? Nope. What amazes me about this whole situation is the reaction of said girl after the fact.

Apparently this girl put on her blog that she has some sort of interview coming up and now she can't access any of her work related documents because she was banned from the document hosting site. Now I can already hear some of the grumbles coming you dear readers. You are thinking that this seems very unfair. You are thinking that this girl should not lose out on work because she made a mistake. Maybe you are thinking that this girl's professional life shouldn't be made to suffer EVEN if she did do everything maliciously.

If you are thinking that, then PISS OFF with you! When you make a mistake, no matter how innocent, there are consequences. It is an example of the ages that people think that because their actions did not have the intended results, that somehow that means that there should be no punishment. Or worse. Sometimes people just don't think they should have to pay the consequences of their conduct at all. Ever.

You make mistakes. This is normal. Everyone does. Suffering the consequences of those mistakes is what teaches us to be better people. It is what teaches us the errors of our ways. To deny our children, or others the experience of this suffering is to deny them the tools necessary for them to become better people. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. I have suffered what seemed to be unfair consequences at the time of those mistakes. But from every mistake I have made, I have learned, and mostly I do not repeat those mistakes.

So don't look to me to feel sorry for you, pattern uploading girl. Like my mom always said, if you play, you pay. Them's the breaks, kid.

ETA: Grammar and punctuation. Not used to posting in the new format, sorry!