Let's say I generate a new address and by some miracle it has Bitcoin already in it belonging to somebody else. Is it legal to just take it? I understand those odds are very low, no need to lecture me, I'm just interested.
You say you dont want to be lectures when you ask the most stupid questions. How the hell is your new address going to magically become someone else's ? Dude for Gods sake use your head. You need a slap dude.
No need to be rude. That's entirely possible, although it has a VERY small chance to happen. I have heard your new address (for example cold wallet) can coincide with someone else's. Because of the many characters an account has, it's a number close to 0 but it still can happen. Of course it would not be legal, and the easiest way to find that out is replacing 'somebody else' with 'me'. Would it be illegal for someone else to take the money he found in a wallet that coincided with mine? It is not.