[mildtrepidation]

Either you don't quite understand the purpose of a non-compete or there's an entire class of them I'm not aware of (which is entirely possible), but in my experience, their purpose is to explicitly bar employees from poaching customers from the business.

Working on something in your personal time that's similar to what you're working on for your employer -- unless your employment contract is entirely unreasonable -- isn't and shouldn't be a violation unless you are using company resources (including but not limited to trade secrets learned in the context of your employment and not legally available through other sources).

[fecak]

Non-compete is a somewhat generalized term being used here, but it can mean what you referenced ("don't poach customers") as well as "don't steal our product ideas". These are sometimes called NDA or PIIA (1) which might be better representations of what we are talking about here. In this case, the company is claiming that he stole their code (an 'invention' or 'property' of the company) for the benefit of some other party.

NDA or PIIA agreements are common in software development.

1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement

[hapless]

This is a matter of non-compete agreements, signed by private parties. Personally, I think it's totally reasonable to ask employees not to work on competing products in their off-time. As an employee, I have signed such agreements myself. The author appears to have signed such an agreement.

We can disagree about this. You, personally, are free not to sign these agreements with your employer, because you feel the request is unreasonable.

(Trade secrets are different. That's typically governed by state law, no special agreement required: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Trade_Secrets_Act)

[fragmede]

Non-competes, as applied to tech workers in Massachusetts, essentially say from start, to two years after you quit your job, you will NOT work on anything similar, for anybody. (Depending on the contract you signed.)

(Current Governor of Mass is looking to change this.)

[greggman]

It IS a violation in many places and it should be IMO. See my reply above.

I'll try to dig up some relevant links to laws

Here's a relevant link.

"Employees Owe a Duty of Loyalty to Their Employers

...

Thus, an employee who improperly competes with his employer, assists a competitor during the course of employment, or makes use of the employer's confidential information to compete with the employer after termination may have breached the duty of loyalty.

"

etc..

http://shawvalenza.com/publications.php?id=68