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I work in California and hired a lawyer to nullify a non-compete clause. The company backed off when my lawyer cited case law that basically says if a company attempts to clamp down on a skill you had pre-existing to employment, ALL previous contracts become null and void. California views this kind of corporate behavior as a form of enslavement.

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Quite reasonable given California's history, as "You'll never work in this town again" is a threat with some very real weight behind it for the Tinseltown population.

That particular case isn't helped by labor laws, as the threat isn't enforced legally. They put your name on a blacklist and all of a sudden you find that nobody will hire you. I don't know the specific provenance of that legal precedent, but I doubt it had anything to do with Hollywood.

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