One way to skin a cat...

...or a tree frog, duck or monkey, if you're Telus.

Remember THAT post? The one where I yammered on about "blogs" and "Web 2.0" and wondered aloud about the impact of internet use on HR, LR, IR and any other --Rs out there? The one where I suggested that we should talk about this, that it has serious implications for those of us in the "people" field?

Well, here we go again. Telus has ordered the take-down of "a number" of videos on YouTube. These videos were produced during their 2005 labour dispute (and possibly before) and a number of them depict Telus in an unflattering light. Technically, one of the rules for YouTube is that if videos are posted by someone who does not "own" the content, they were posted without the owner's consent and can be taken down at the owner's request. There is, as you'll see from The Tyee article, some dissent on the issue of who owns the videos.

Ownership, however, is almost beyond the point of discussion in the days of file sharing and uploading, so I won't spend anymore time there. The interesting aspect of this story for me is Telus' response: it's very 1998. The thing is, I'm not sure the world really works this way anymore, where you can simply remove the blemishes from your reputation in the same way a fifteen-year-old applies Oxy. The mere assumption that because the videos include you in it somehow means it belongs to you is also extremely outdated.

And then there's the issue of the other kind of publicity this attracts. Telus wants savvy knowledge workers, many of whom know the Web, use it and love it. The act of attempting to LIMIT what people put on the Web is a risky move among a key job market, as many folks in this group are very wary of attempts to rein in user-driven content.

It's also risky for an organization that's still trying to clean up their employment brand from a lengthy strike two years. Never mind the fact that they're also in one of Canada's hottest job markets.

**Thanks to Rob Cottingham for the notification of this article.