"Obscure" does not mean "unimportant." It means few people know about it. I've lived in San Francisco and worked in the tech industry here for 10 years, during

"Obscure" does not mean "unimportant." It means few people know about it. I've lived in San Francisco and worked in the tech industry here for 10 years, during which time I've discussed this exact law with numerous people in many different roles. I can count on one hand the number of people who had heard of it before I told them. Since almost nobody (here or elsewhere) knows that this law even exists, it's reasonable to conclude that it is not a significant factor in the development of the local tech industry. Moreover, all of the large tech concerns whose profits fund those VC firms would be much better off without this law and are openly against it. See, for example, the anti-employee poaching ring that Steve Jobs set up.