I think it makes sense that Google wants to control what employees do in the time they pay them for. "Using company laptops" is kinda stretching it (I mean, I could buy a separate laptop just for open-source patches, especially if I'm paid Google salary, but isn't that really a ridiculous pettiness? Marginal cost of it to Google is exactly zero). But claiming you own somebody's free time and everything they do in their free time, just because they pay the person a salary is beyond ridiculous. I can get why people put up with it - those sweet Google salaries again - but it doesn't stop being beyond ridiculous. It's like I'd claim if I hire a lawyer now I get to be a beneficiary of every lawsuit they ever file, or if I buy a book the writer now owes me royalties on every book they write from now on. It just mind-boggling that one has to get some kind of "permission" to own the products of one's own brain and hands because they get salary from Google, and that people expect Google to be praised for letting some people to use their own brain.