I respect Joel immensely. That said, I found his post strange in what it leaves out. So much so that I wrote my own follow up. https://medium.com/@wwalser/re-d

I respect Joel immensely. That said, I found his post strange in what it leaves out. So much so that I wrote my own follow up. https://medium.com/@wwalser/re-developers-side-projects-3ee3274f39fe#.vzp6lcp1r https://medium.com/@wwalser/re-developers-side-projects-3ee3... Basically, yes, it's standard practice but in every company that I've worked for there have been escape hatches that were relatively easy to utilize. HR usually has paperwork that both parties sign saying something along the lines of "[developer] is going to build [thing] in their own time using their own hardware. We grant [developer] the legal right to maintain ownership of [thing]". I pay a lot of attention to what I'm signing. My side projects are important to me. They're a part of my lifestyle. I think most devs could very comfortably sign without a second thought. On the whole, state and contract law in the US combine to create a fairly good safety net for avoiding truly abhorrent contracts.