It is your free time, and you can do whatever you want for yourself. The problem is when you market it to someone else, whether for money or donated, if you agreed to such restrictions. Then that free time is work, whether you enjoy it or get paid for it, which is why the employer in this case thought they had a right to restrict it.
I too wish there was a sane way to deal with this, but I don't think this is a case that's so simple that that you can pass a law that isn't so narrow as to be useless that also isn't so vague that it takes a hatchet to important legitimate concerns for employers in a way that would be bad overall. Passing a law about rights of a person would be a sane first step, but how do you do that while also protecting IP and trade secrets, etc? That's why I recommend to get mark we t, not because the market gets everything right, but because I'm this case I think it's better than a law that I not only think won't be done well in the end, I'm not even sure it could be done well. And to be clear, many states already have laws that curtail the worst excesses of contracts like these (such as limiting what type of work qualifies based on what you are employed for), and I think expanding those that work to help this to other states is a good thing, as well as small targeted additions. I just don't think it's something we can use legislation alone to fix.
> Passing a law about rights of a person would be a sane first step, but how do you do that while also protecting IP and trade secrets, etc?
We already have laws for these things. If you steal IP your employer already has recourse, so why do they need to control your non work time in addition to the legal avenues already at their disposal?
We handle those through contract law to some extent. Any law passed to prevent employer overreach would presumably be neutering contract law in some manner. I'm not sure there won't be unintended consequences we'll have to deal with for a long time.
> why do they need to control your non work time in addition to the legal avenues already at their disposal?
They aren't controlling your non-work time, they're controlling your non-work output. You can use that work, they just don't want you selling or giving it away, as they view that as competing with what you've contracted to provide them exclusively (because you signed an exclusive contract).
I too wish there was a sane way to deal with this, but I don't think this is a case that's so simple that that you can pass a law that isn't so narrow as to be useless that also isn't so vague that it takes a hatchet to important legitimate concerns for employers in a way that would be bad overall. Passing a law about rights of a person would be a sane first step, but how do you do that while also protecting IP and trade secrets, etc? That's why I recommend to get mark we t, not because the market gets everything right, but because I'm this case I think it's better than a law that I not only think won't be done well in the end, I'm not even sure it could be done well. And to be clear, many states already have laws that curtail the worst excesses of contracts like these (such as limiting what type of work qualifies based on what you are employed for), and I think expanding those that work to help this to other states is a good thing, as well as small targeted additions. I just don't think it's something we can use legislation alone to fix.