I was at the 2008 Annual CIPD conference, and attended the TMP exhibition presentation on “Communicate Your Recruitment Message Direct to Your Candidate Audience and Begin the Employer Brand Journey” (always good to do some competitor research, n’est ce pas?

Anyway, after some opening thoughts, the UK CEO Andrew Wilkinson, presented some thoughts “his team had pieced together”. He then proceeded to play a compelling and incredibly powerful short video called Shift Happens. I’ve embedded it here for you to see.

Unfortunately, the video was nothing to do with TMP: it was actually created by a member of staff at Arapahoe High School back in 2006. There have been a number of modifications since and for those of you who are interested, the wiki explaining the history of the piece can be found here. But principally, it has been around for at least two years.

Now I’m all for sharing great content. And to be frank, the original creator of the piece is too. However, the distribution license clearly states that a user may “attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).” It also states that the presentation “may not be used for commercial purposes.” None of these conditions were met.

I have to point out here that I work for one of TMP’s competitors. But my issue has nothing to do with one-upmanship. Its about trying to do the right thing. The web is a great tool; a resource of freely available information for everyone. And there are some implicit rules about using this information. We all make mistakes, but I’m concerned that if I send a mail, my point will simply fall on deaf ears for the wrong reason.

So my question is what should I do now? Do I send a mail to Andrew, pointing out the error of his ways for what could have simply been an honest mistake? Or do I leave it alone and hope that TMP gets a rush of conscience and compensates the originators in some way? Because frankly, even if you had seen the video on You Tube and it was an honest mistake, as a commercial entity we have obligations to do the correct thing. I’m still undecided. Answers on a postcard, please…

And if it annoys you, as much as it annoys me, just mail him directly Andrew.Wilkinson@tmpw.co.uk