[soared]

My employer’s legal team threatened action after they found my personal site that contained free informational courses about the industry. The site specifically called out where information was sourced from, and linked to those publicly available places (from google/fb/etc - not my employer).

I no longer post with the real name anywhere.

[knowitnone]

Hope you are no longer with that employer. That's aggressive action from them about free information.

[zzyzxd]

What these companies worry about is not free information. Their concerns are usually around company IPs, copyrights, reputation/branding...etc.

Do those risks exist? Sure. But it's silly to blindly forbid your employee's outside-business activities like this. However, in this job market, employers probably can easily find candidates that don't have problem with this silly restriction so they don't have incentives to allocate resources to deal with the headache.

A personal website may sound too "professional" to a legal person. I bet OP could post the same information on facebook/twitter without getting into any trouble.

[freedomben]

No kidding, what an absolutely stupid thing to do as an employer. I (badly) want people who are so interested in the industry that they will research external information and write about it. The correct response for the employer should have been at minimum gratitude and encouragement. Threatening legal action falls under the old adage that "no good deed goes unpunished."

[soared]

I had thought the same. My company is not US based and from a more authoritarian culture that does not promote critical thinking as much though. Unfortunately the hours, pay, and benefits are so good that I’ve simply learned to keep my head down and focus energy on things not work related.