Ownership

Where does one start? Well, not with Google’s definition, which fluffs it entirely. “Ownership”, it says, is “the act, state, or right of possessing something”. Well, only in the limited sense of the word possession — the sense in which it means ownership. So that’s a tautological definition. For it is quite possible to possess something one does not own: if I borrow your tennis racquet, I possess it, but you own it. I can possess your tennis racquet without it being my possession, though — that is the limited sense, meaning ownership.

In the legal sense, “ownership” is holding the legal title and the equitable benefit of some property Not everything can be property: data that falls short of intellectual property, for example, and, arguable cash (being an abstract token of value and not a corporeal thing per se).