[rapala]

It's off-topic, but I just have to ask. Why? Why would local copies be disallowed?

[simark1]

I guess it's a (perhaps debatable) security argument. If I leave my unlocked laptop unattended (but not connected to the VPN) in a public space, for example, then it makes it harder for a third party to steal that code. I'm sure you'll find one thousand counterexamples where it wouldn't help, but no policy is perfect.

But a more practical reason is that some legacy software is designed to be run on these company servers, it expects certain things to be at particular places, so you need to work on them. Again, this is not ideal (and we try to change that little by little when possible), but that's how it is right now.

[hexa00]

To prevent someone to copy it all on a laptop and sell it for example.

[TeMPOraL]

That's completely ridiculous (and, unfortunately, also completely plausible with companies) - see the so-called "analog hole" (or in this case even digital - if it hits the browser as textual content).

[s73ver]

I doubt the code is that valuable, but if you don't trust your employees to not do that (seriously, nearly every other company trusts their engineers at least that much), then why did you hire them in the first place?