Actually, fair use has always been a part of the US Copyrights Act. The whole issue of "rights" is a large and complex one. First and foremost you have the Copyright Law. For the matter at hand, let it be known that a software is considered to be the same a literary work.
Inside the copyrights act, you have the fair use. It's legal for you to let's say... take a screenshot of a game's graphics to use it in a review, but it's not legal to take that screenshot to use it in another software.
Then you have Licensing (software license, free license, open license, GPL, EULA, click-wrap, etc etc) which was invented in the early 80s to circumvent certain aspects of Copyright laws. Under the copyright law, if one would like to be a real tight ass, any software on removable media (let's say a CD) cannot legally be installed on hard disk because that is making a copy of the product (stupid ain't it?) So the first software license were created so that users could make personal backups of software bought on a destrucible media (magnet + original 3.5" disk = no more software!). It is legal for you to rent a movie for your living room, but it is illegal to rent it for public display. You can buy a DVD and make a copy for yourself, but not one for your neighbor.
Licenses are also used to extend the owner's right over the software and how it is used. Most people don't read the license agreements and that's what is profitable for companies. For example, did you know that if you send a file to someone over MSN Messenger, Microsoft reserves the right to claim that software as his own? It's all right there in the EULA. So by now I think it's safe to say that Microsoft owns all the software in the world
Of course this wouldn't hold up in any court where the judge has an IQ over 15... but on paper, it's all there!
I think it's safe to say that every single member of this board has a HOST of pirated software for both the PC and the Miggy. In fact, my personnal opinion is that without pirating, we would only now begin to have computers beyond the C64. At the same time, pirating has sent many a developper into bankruptcy so it's all very interpretable and makes for long winded discussions that generally don't amount to much.
In the case of the Amiga, you seriously risk next to nothing when dealing with pirated software, but the act remains illegal in itself. If you do trade that kind of software you acknowledge you are breaking the law, and accept the fact that you can be punished for it.
