[crispyambulance]

OK, but that's REALLY hard to assess for a normal person on their own.

Moreover, it doesn't prevent unreasonable entities from having their retained lawyers draft scary letters. Most people just sign the boilerplate, hope for the best, and try not to poke sticks into wasp nests if they can avoid it.

[DennisP]

But at software engineer salaries, it's not that expensive to get legal advice for this. I did it once, when a company I'd worked at for over a decade was bought out, and insisted everyone sign onerous contracts including broad IP assignment. I read the contracts carefully, marked them up with specific questions, and spent $300 on a half-hour consult with a lawyer, who said it was pretty much all enforceable in my state. (So I left the company, which worked out fine.)

[AaronM]

One question/comment here, I don't think they can force you to sign a new one in most states without giving you something in return. I know someone who refused to sign a new contract because they didn't give him anything in return, and there was nothing they could do about it, or at least there was nothing they did do about it.

[DennisP]

Hah interesting. My lawyer didn't mention that so maybe my state was an exception. Or, our employers can fire us anytime for any reason so maybe he figured it would be impractical to litigate.