They may not install personal copies of software they purchased for home use on a school computer; or make copies of school-owned software for either home use or to share with parents and students. In addition, the laws address the use of shareware. Sometimes people think of shareware as "free," but it is not, and schools may not use shareware beyond the date at which the shareware copyright owner demands payment. In addition, although freeware is free in that the school does not have to pay for it, the law states that people may not sell freeware. Schools are not likely to do that, but they also cannot alter the freeware for any kind of commercial purpose, even if their goal was to support educational goals in some way (Education World).

The cumulative effect of these laws require that schools (as well as everyone else) use commercial software only in those ways strictly supported by the school's sales or licensing agreement. However, the application of these laws is often situational - that is, circumstances may determine whether copying some software is "fair use" or not. Thus, a school can make copies of a word processing program for limited home use by teachers if using that software is integral to school functioning and if teachers complete some of that work at home. Teachers may not, however, make a copy of a program simply because they would like to have it for personal use at home. This distinction may be lost on teachers if they are simply handed copies of software owned by the school with no explanation of why those particular copies are legal when others might not be (Education...

All of these laws continue to allow schools to make archival copies of software - backup copies to be used only if they need to erase and resinstall the software for some reason.
School libraries have additional concerns regarding the software used on library computers when those computers will be used by students and staff as well as library personnel.

No doubt some educators find the laws complicated and cumbersome, but this reflects the complex nature of regulating rights in an area that grows and changes so rapidly. If schools are going to use computers, they must accept the requirement that they do so honestly and without violating the rights of those who created the software they use.

Bibliography

Association of Research Libraries (ARL). "A History of Copyright in the United States." Accessed via the Internet 6/2/09. http://arl.cni.org/info/frn/copy/timeline.html#20C

Education world. "Applying Fair Use to New Technologies." Accessed via the Internet 6/2/09. http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280d.shtml

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MSCU). "Copyright Law/History," in Intellectual Property and Copyright. Accessed via the Internet 6/2/09. http://copyright.mnscu.edu/introduction.htm

NCSU. "The TEACH Toolkit." Accessed via the Internet 6/2/09. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/legislative/teachkit/

North Carolina Conference of English Instructors (NCCEI). "Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers." Accessed via the Internet 6/2/09. http://www.nccei.org/blackboard/copyright.html