Finders, keepers

Application

• One of the most common uses of "Finders, Keepers" involves shipwrecks. Under international maritime law, for shipwrecks of a certain age, the original owner may have lost all claim to the cargo. Anyone who finds the wreck can then file a salvage claim on it and place a lien on the vessel, and subsequently mount a salvage operation.
• Philosophies, such as anarcho-capitalism, that advocate a right to own land and other natural resources often appeal to the doctrine of finders keepers in the case of claiming ownership of what was previously unowned.
• In the United States, the Homestead Act allowed people to claim land as their own as long as it was originally unowned and the property was then developed by the claimant.
• In the field of social simulation, Rosaria Conte and Cristiano Castelfranchi have used "finders, keepers" as a case study for simulating the evolution of norms in simple societies.

  Children's usage