However I don't have a great understanding of all the issues at play here, so I may be wrong. Anyone have any experience as to why this is good/bad?
I have first hand experience with the anti-poaching policy, since I work for a different company that employs the same practice.
When I was searching for a job within town I was told by recruiting firms and other companies that they could not and would not talk to me, because of the agreements they have with my employer.
It makes searching for a job extremely difficult as one might suspect. It is effectively a job monopoly, since wages become fixed due to the lack of competition for jobs.
For the longer term, I would like to see a federal law enacted against the anti-poaching employment practice.
Let's put it the other way: why do you think what works on a smaller scale (local companies) will necessarily tell us how it will work on a national scale (large national companies)?
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter X, Part II
And therefore it's long been a part of US Federal anti-trust law and case law. Modern Republican administrations in particular have tended to focus their attention on these type of price fixing cases.
If you're an employee who has invested money and many years building up skills and education to become valuable to companies you might have a different view.
It's a coincidence this article comes on the heels of AngelGate, where it was Angels seeking to form anti-competitive agreements for their own benefit -- and less benefit for entrepreneurs.
Knowing friends who worked at these companies, they never felt the anti competitive pressure, and several moved between the companies several times.
Most likely, the government found some clauses buried in some contracts that said in a foot note that the companies would agree not to cold call employees in their own respective companies. I don't even think it's unreasonable to have a contract along those lines if engineers are working directly with each other.
Although on the flip side, I think it might be valuable to send a message that anti-competitive agreements in general won't be tolerated and it's good to know that there are people watching this sort of thing.