As developers, we're biased towards one view of this issue, but it's intellectually lazy of us to just say "Yeah, we deserve it! Because... fairness!"

Last December, Joel Spolsky wrote about developer side projects, and honestly, he's right.

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-pr...

My view: In some companies, depending on their business model, it might be reasonable to ask to own your own work on side projects. But it would be reasonable of them to expect you to give up something in exchange (e.g. smaller salary).