> When a savvy software company hires someone, they understand that [thinking deeply about a work problem, even during nights and weekends] is how developers operate.
This isn't really the _reason_ that companies have these kinds of policies though... Ultimately companies have a legal problem of sorting out what they own from what they don't. This is especially important when the company sells it's assets. The default/simple approach is to try and "own everything". (Not saying this is good for employees, but it is simple for companies.)
>This isn't really the _reason_ that companies have these kinds of policies though
I think it's fair to say that there are multiple reasons. The one you listed is definitely one of them. Joel Spolsky wrote about this a few months ago:
This isn't really the _reason_ that companies have these kinds of policies though... Ultimately companies have a legal problem of sorting out what they own from what they don't. This is especially important when the company sells it's assets. The default/simple approach is to try and "own everything". (Not saying this is good for employees, but it is simple for companies.)