quite to the contrary captain sarcastic, laws do still have relevance but there is no law that was broken here due to bendavis being the rightful owner because they were signed over to him. Situations like this are unfortunate but the kind of potential gray areas arising with "intent" and involving a governing body are the kinds of things bitcoin was intended to avoid (so in a way, yes, freedom of currency). They are not reversible no matter how badly many in this thread want it to be, in which case i submit that perhaps bitcoin should not be the currency for you if you wish to be able to retrieve your btc after accidentally sending them.