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0 pointsnbpoole15y ago0 comments

As you pointed out, it's a gray area.

http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422/if-im-working-...

"Not related to your employer's line of work. Um, wait. What's the definition of related? If my employer is Microsoft, they do everything. They made a goddamn BARNEY PLUSH TOY with a computer in it once. Are plush toys related? Obviously operating systems, compilers, desktop applications, search engines, and games are related to Microsoft's line of work. Hmmm."

"This ambiguity is meant to create enough of a chilling effect on the employee working in their spare time that for all intents and purposes it achieves the effect that the employer wants: the employee doesn't bother doing any side projects that might turn into a business some day, and the employer gets a nice, refreshed employee coming to work in the morning after spending the previous evening watching TV."

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michaelochurch15y ago

This ambiguity is meant to create enough of a chilling effect on the employee working in their spare time that for all intents and purposes it achieves the effect that the employer wants: the employee doesn't bother doing any side projects that might turn into a business some day, and the employer gets a nice, refreshed employee coming to work in the morning after spending the previous evening watching TV.

I don't think it's this devious. It's simpler than that. Strategically and legally speaking, you never don't want rights, even if those are rights you shouldn't, by any reasonable moral judgment, have. Companies ask for aggressive terms not to be malevolent and devious but because the lawyer's job is to get the most aggressive terms (i.e. the most rights) possible. If it were legal for a company to assert rights over an employee's work for 2 years after employment, shareholders would expect executives, and executives would therefore expect lawyers, to push for those terms. The game, at least in theory, is about getting the most aggressive (and yes, often unfair) terms upfront and letting the courts sort it out.

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michaelochurch15y ago

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