How do you recommend getting a basic understanding of the law?
mikecane: Both the Copyright Office and Patent Office have sites that can give you the 101.http://www.copyright.gov/
http://www.uspto.gov/If you are ever thinking of living in the U.S., especially in NYC, then there's a whole set of laws you should understand regarding the rights of tenants, if you rent:http://www.tenant.net/Note that NYC tenant law is not transferable to other cities.  The laws exist as they do due to several distortions, both by gov't and the market.