[pfarnsworth]

>Also Most software engineers when they leave the company take backup of not only the entire code they've written but also the entire code for the project they've been working on. Thats why the IP Protection clause.

You mean like Anthony Levandowski? I think we all know how that turned out.

I never make copies and no one should. These days companies know when you put in a thumb drive, copy things on, etc. if you do anything like stealing code, they will know for sure. Why risk it?

[mrchicity]

Agree completely. This is one of the worst things you can do, even if the code isn't particularly confidential. It is such an easy case to win. Worse yet, you expose your new employer to enormous liability and can taint their entire code base if left undiscovered for a long time. If I saw tons of source code of unknown provenance committed by some new guy, I'd be scared shitless.

If you're lucky, it might only cost you millions of dollars:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Decadelong...

Or you could end up in jail:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Aleynikov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Agrawal