In my Microcomputers in Education class, we discussed copyright laws of various types.  We also watched a PowerPoint presentation entitled, "Copyright Laws and Fair Use Policy: What You Need to Know As a Future Teacher," which makes the clear distinction between what is legal to use if properly cited and what is illegal to use.  The final handout is Citing Electronic Resources in APA and MLA Style, a useful reference when using copyrighted material from electronic sources.

We discussed the three types of software: Public Domain, Shareware, and Copyrighted.  Public Domain is free and available for people to copy.  Shareware is free for a trial basis and then one must purchase the software.  Copyrighted software requires one to buy the software and it is illegal to copy it.  there are also two types of licenses.  A Single User License is legal to use on one computer.  A Network License is used on a File Server for many computers on a network to use.  We also discussed copyrighted text and its proper uses.