Once upon a time, I was looking for a job, in straightened circumstances. I found a so-so match, and since I was in danger of missing a mortgage payment, I decided to accept their offer. Pragmatism and all that.
Well, I went in and picked up the documents, and told them I needed to read them before signing and returning them to the company. I looked at the IP clause, and it said the company owned anything and everything I created or invented while an employee, in any field of endeavor.
I called the founder to renegotiate.
"What if," I posited, "I write a blog post. The way I read this, the company owns the copyright on my blog post."
> Yes.
"Or if I take a video of a climbing trip, the company owns that video."
> We'd never exercise that right. But we reserve the right.
"Well, I'm not sure I want to agree that anything I create, even on my own time and property and with my own equipment, belongs to you."
> Now that you mention it, I'm not sure I want to employ
> someone who uses their creative energy for anything except
> the company's business.
"Thanks for the clarification!"
My next call was to a realtor, I put my house up for sale. There was no way I wanted to be in a position where I would feel like I had no choice but to accept an offer like this.
I went through some hard times, but as it turned out, that blog that I did end up writing on-and-off over the years turned out to be valuable. Not directly in money, but in satisfaction. It lead to some work, but even more importantly, it led to communities like Hacker News and meeting programmers around the world.
If I'd agreed to that contract, there might not be a "raganwald" today.