Do I need to inform my employer before contributing to an Open Source Project?

[Joseph Hick]

> It depends on local law.  Under California law, you
> need not
> inform your employer at all.  Under New York law,
> everything
> you do belongs to your employer unless you have
> agreed otherwise
> in writing.  YMMV.  IANAL; TINLA.
> 

i don't understand how can the law allow my employer
encroach on my personal life? what i do in my spare
time is my personal life. if i want to write a
software that doesn't compete with my employer's
products and i want to give it to my friends and other
people on net for free, why should the law allow my
employer to stop me from doing so?

i don't need the permission of my employer to have sex
in my spare time. then why does the law require that i
take permission to write code i want to give away to
others for free?

please help me understand this.


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