[CodeWriter23]

I share your view. However, I can also see the employer's perspective in a scenario like the project for the company ships late but all employee's commits to the open source project the employee founded or participates are all timely.

I won't sign a contract the restricts what I do on my free time. Any place that does that is not a place for me.

[mikeash]

I can see the employer's perspective as you describe it, as in "psychopaths might think this way," but I can't sympathize with it. I think this is something we need to regulate, just like we say employees can't tell you what god to worship or whether to have children.

[Stratoscope]

s/employee/employer/

If you get a chance to edit that typo I'll delete this comment to reduce clutter. :-)

[mikeash]

Thank you for pointing that out. I guess I'll delete mine after you delete yours. I hope it works that way.

[Stratoscope]

Silly me, I didn't get back here in time to delete my comment! But we're probably long off the home page by now, so nobody cares much about a little clutter... :-)

[Keyframe]

Doing anything else is a form of slavery. Most people are somehow OK with it. That company basically owns you 0-24 and everything you produce for a hand-full of cash.