Exactly, I still can't believe anyone here would have a problem with this. It stinks that the exchange made an error in their coding but now they know not to make that same mistake again, that's how the free market works. If we let the government come in and take over bitcoin they will be making laws and regulations about it instantly. What's next? Employees of the exchanges being mandated to join a union?
The free market would work exactly how it is in this thread EXCEPT for all the reference to law and legal precedent. There STILL would be effort to recover the lost/stolen property but instead of resorting to relying on established law governing human species (do laws apply to other animals? If so, I would like to incriminate some pestering bugs that have been overwhelming me lately.), there would be resorting to other activities liek %$%#$&ing and ^*&*&^%#$ing.