A primer of legal issues for software engineering education

Software engineering education has evolved over the past ten years as our understanding of the issues related to the practice of developing software systems has increased. Part of that evolution is an increased appreciation for the diverse body of knowledge software developers must possess. Learning software development skills requires more than merely participating in design projects and managing technical details. Design projects provide a context within which the social and technical aspects of software engineering become visible, yet the legal issues involved in software engineering may not be fully addressed. This lack of coverage of legal issues is the result of the fragmented placement of topics in the curriculum. We are addressing this failure by constructing modules, consisting of scenarios, for our software engineering course to cover the critical legal issues with which our students need to be familiar. These modules can be used independently of particular courses. The first modules are covered, and include 1) intellectual property, 2) privacy, and 3) theories of liability. We describe the importance of legal topics in software engineering education, offer a preliminary view of the content of the modules, provide an overview of the scenario construction strategy, and provide a glimpse into the methods we use to refine the scenarios we develop