I am not a lawyer, just thinking loud.
I think that technology is a strong argument before court, but I suspect that it is just that, as of now.

Tamas Blummer
On Jan 20, 2015, at 6:47 PM, Matt Whitlock <bip@mattwhitlock.name> wrote:

> On Tuesday, 20 January 2015, at 6:44 pm, Tamas Blummer wrote:
>> Knowing the private key and owning the linked coins is not necessarily the same in front of a court.
>> 
>> At least in german law there is a difference between ‘Eigentum' means ownership and ‘Besitz’ means ability to deal with it.
>> Being able to deal with an asset does not make you the owner.
> 
> So what we're telling the newbies in /r/bitcoin is plain wrong. Bitcoins *do* have an owner independent from the parties who have access to the private keys that control their disposition. That's pretty difficult to reconcile from a technological perspective.
> 
>