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.