Ask HN: How do you recommend getting a basic understanding of the law?

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.

Particularly on laws regarding the internet you may want to look at: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/about/readings especially Free Culture by Lessig.

Nolo press publishes a lot of good books for people who want to learn about various laws:

http://www.nolo.com/