Brad Hudson wrote:lostindc wrote:
Thanks Brad, terrible as it may be, we are not in court. Brad, humor me, what do you think went down with Elder Durrant and the monetization of ponderize?
See, that's a very good question. ;-)
I think there is a reasonable range of interpretations of the evidence we have to date. I've outlined some of my own biases upthread.
I have no firm opinion on your question because I am missing an important piece of data: did Durrant the Elder know that his son intended to make a profit off the website? I don't think it is reasonable to conclude that the primary purpose of the talk was to make money. I also don't think it is reasonable to conclude that Durrant the Elder expected to share in whatever profits the website might generate. I also suspect that Durrant the Younger had a mix of motives. Clearly, he had a choice at where to price the items and he chose to do it at a level where sales would generate a profit. But that doesn't mean the idea for the website was motivated by profit. I don't see any evidence that would let me conclude anything about how the idea for the website originated or when Durant the Younger decided to make a profit on it.
Within the range of reasonable interpretations, this looks to me like an idea that evolved over time. "Ponderize" had been a term used by Durrant the Elder with his family and it had become part of family lore. I think he likely thought it was unique. I'm assuming he was informed a couple months back to give him enough time to prepare. When he was chosen to speak at General Conference, somebody had the idea to use it as the theme of his talk. The motives for the choice were undoubtedly mixed. He and family members likely thought the concept would be helpful to other Latter-Day Saints. The idea of giving a talk with a theme that would stand out and be remembered would likely be appealing. And the notion of making a good impression on leadership could have been in play. I find all of these reasons more than sufficient to explain why he selected Ponderize as the theme of his talk. I don't need a profit motive, and there is no evidence that would support a profit motive at the outset.
At some point, either Durrant the Elder or a family member may have suggested that, because the term was unusual, it might be a good idea to reserve domain names to prevent their use by others. People with ideas reserve domain names all the time. Domain registration companies actively promote the concept. For a guy of his vintage, .com, .org and .net may have seemed to be the most common choices. He registered two, but .com was taken. One of things I would want to know before reaching firm conclusions is whether he looked up the owner of the .com URL and went to the website. If he had, he would have known that someone else had published a book using the term.
At some point, someone (probably Durrant the Younger) got a bright idea to sell branded merch on a website. Again, I suspect the motives were mixed -- promotion of the talk, promotion of Dad's reputation, and at some point, profit. The fact that Durrant the Younger registered the .us domain several weeks after Durrant the Younger registered the others and so close to the conference talk indicates to me that the idea was evolving over time and the idea to sell the merchandise was not pursued until late in the process. To me, the timing also supports the notion that profit was not the original motive for choosing the topic of the talk.
I did check to see if anyone had claimed a copyright or trademark/tradename on "ponderize." I couldn't find any evidence that anyone had.
I hope my answer indicates why I thought the original yes or no question was a terrible one. When it comes to people and their motives, yes or no questions are not adequate.
TL/DR I don't think there is sufficient evidence to reasonably conclude on the evidence we have that Durrant the Elder chose his topic because he intended that he or his son would profit, that Durrant the Elder knew his son intended to earn a profit, or that Durrant the Younger's sole or even primary motivation for creating the website was profit.
Has Durrant the Younger offered an apology or made any other kind of statement?
I really really disagree with your conclusions. It's very very obvious he was trying to ensure the brethren would never ask him to speak in conference again.
