Out-Law.com asks whether "Your boss could own your Facebook profile" - and according to IP law expert Catrin Turner of Pinsent Masons, the short answer is yes.

The article references the PennWell ruling where precedence was seemingly set for an employer to claim ‘ownership’ over contact lists produced by a former employee during working hours.

From the article, Catrin Turner had the following to say on the case:

"The basic law is that if you create copyright material, something you write or type into a computer, you take photographs, you do cartoons, you potentially create film, if that is created in the course of your employment then the assumption is that that belongs to your employer, so that doesn't have to be written down by your employer."

What are the implications of this ruling when we look at the relationships and reputations we've built in different online environments? Is it possible that relationships and contact lists which are formed on Facebook or MySpace, and the profile itself can become an employers property? On this issue, Catrin Turner goes on to say:

...social networking sites and the material a person creates for them do not exist in a vacuum, that they do interact with working life, but that most users do not realise this.

"They may think that social networking is something which doesn't affect their work relationship, but it certainly does."

In a past post, I've discussed the more complex issues facing corporations as they relate to breaches of confidentiality which can occur when key company data walks out the door. In the Pennwell case and as Catrin Turner points out in the Out-Law.com article, this data can include contact lists and any relationships we form during our term of employment.

We may now have even greater reason for business to develop specific policies and private social networking infrastructure to keep business and personal activities separate. Not only when it relates to the standpoint of productivity, but in light of the Pennwell precedence, an even more convincing argument can now be made for employees to engage in any Facebook related activity only on free time.