[btilly]

The point is that "outside your work hours" is undefined. If you're receiving a page, is that work hours? If you're thinking about work during your shower, is that work hours?

Most people do a lot of productive work outside regular work hours and outside of the work place. It would be a real problem if they could then tell their employer, "This thing you're depending on? It is actually mine! You have to negotiate for it!"

So laws are passed to guarantee that it is clear who owns the brilliant solution to a work problem that you dream up in the shower. The question is how much other stuff gets swept up in that net.