[drglitch]

It's actually usually not the employer, but the local dept of labor laws - for salaries employees, unless explicitly stated otherwise - your employer generally "owns" anything you do in your line of work, even on your own time. So for example if you work for a game studio, coming up with an idea for a game would auto-magically make it your employer's property, even if you did it on a sunday morning.

This is further reinforced by various employer-specific clauses in the hiring contract / code of conduct.

Its screwed up but its the world we live in.

[crdoconnor]

I don't sign contracts like these. Actually, I refuse even to work for employers who put it in and then take it out when asked because the trust has already gone if you demanded to own the work I do on a Sunday afternoon.

Any employer who puts that clause in their contract and whinges about not being able to find good developers has only themselves to blame.