Who here is on Timonen's side?

[paul]

I notice there is a lot of Josh-hating on this forum, surrounding the suit by the Dawkins foundation against him for embezzlement. I don't think I found one word of solidarity for him in glancing through the threads. One user even said he was a cock for starting a website about his legal battle. (Why starting a website makes anyone a cock is unclear to me.) What seems clear is that nobody here or elsewhere on the net understands his side of the story.

I know Josh well, and although I haven't discussed the suit with him, I am quite certain it is a total sham. I remember when there was no Richard Dawkins site. Josh would carry around books by Dawkins, which he had been reading since a teenager, infectiously raving about them to all who would listen. He e-mailed Dawkins and suggested creating a site for him. Dawkins was pleased with the idea, and the two met in London to lay the groundwork for the site. Josh labored fiendishly 12-16 hours daily to get the site up and maintain it. I know because I would drop in on him and he was always working on it. I would call and he would tell me about what he was doing on the site. The site was his life. This went on for over a year, at least. Josh received absolutely no remuneration throughout that time. Everything came out of his own pocket. He met Maureen, the notorious girlfriend we’re always hearing about, who started supporting him. Josh was about to be evicted from his apartment, so Maureen offered to let him live with her. She came from a semi-affluent family, had a good size home in Studio City, and supported him in a comfortable manner while he was struggling financially. I felt badly for Josh, seeing how hard he worked for no compensation at all, but was glad he had Maureen to bail him out. He was struggling to supplement his income through music recording for friends and colleagues in the LA area. He was a great recording engineer with an awesome flair for Protools and a great intuition for microphone placement and usage. Still, he was struggling in the most basic ways financially, depending a great deal on Maureen.

During a trip to Los Angeles, Dawkins finally acknowledged to Josh how he deserved to be paid something for his efforts. Josh didn’t know how much it would be, but felt elated that his efforts were going to be validated by actual remuneration. He had been terribly discouraged by the lack of financial support from Dawkins, though he liked him very much as a person and they got along famously from their first meeting. I encouraged Josh to speak directly to Richard, as I’m sure others did, about being paid.

The important point is that Dawkins stated Josh would keep the net proceeds of the online store as his payment for the website. It was as simple an arrangement as that. This agreement had been set in place before there was any Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Skeptical of such an informal arrangement, I told Josh to try to steer clear of an semblance of impropriety: “Save all your documentation and share it with Richard openly,” I said. He agreed whole-heartedly. Richard knew Josh was supporting himself with the proceeds from the store. That was Richard's idea! I always got the impression that Richard had no interest in discussing business. It was almost as if talk of numbers bored him.

The store, and in turn Josh himself, began making a lot of money, all of which he richly deserved as remuneration for his extraordinary labor. He created the site single-handedly, and put in heavy hours maintaining it and expanding it continuously. He never worked any less than in the first days. Whatever remuneration he received, it was absolutely reasonable and customary. Neither Josh nor Maureen embezzled money. They earned money under the terms set forth by Dawkins himself. They were compensated fairly. I was thrilled to see Josh become successful after the tremendous labor he committed in good faith. Nobody deserved that success more than him. Maureen always stood by Josh through thick and thin, supporting him morally and financially through the site's dubious beginnings, and joining him on the work of the store as it expanded.

Times got tough with the recession and donations fell, hence the call for a scapegoat. The RDFRS has always had it in for Josh, an upstart with no college education who, by sheer dint of hard work and sincerity, fell into Dawkins' good graces. That's not the way things are supposed to work in this world, and Josh saw no end of flack for it.

I hope Josh and Maureen emerge victorious from this frivolous lawsuit plotted by the jealous RDFRS, who never treated Josh with the respect he deserved.

[rachelbean]

[Bella Fortuna]

Oh.

[Geoff]

Hi Josh, welcome!

[Millefleur]

Nice story bro

[Twoflower]

[Gallstones]

Oh I can't wait to see how this goes.

Can you top Seth?

Where are my manners?
Welcome paul.

Do I know you?

[apophenia]

Um. Yeah....

[Pensioner]

Foooking wonderful story, brought a tear to my eye.

[Feck]

The Terrible mistreatment of Josh has driven me to drink

[Azathoth]

[PsychoSerenity]

Hello paul, Welcome.

Interesting first post. I hope you'll be following it up with more?

[HomerJay]

Not for the first time, Ratz has me reaching for the kleenex.

[Pappa]

Not for the first time, Ratz has me reaching for the kleenex.

[Geoff]

Not for the first time, Ratz has me reaching for the kleenex.

And he hasn't even posted a pic yet!