Legal definitions are not necessarily factual ones. The classic example is the 1818 US Court case "Maurice v. Judd" [1] in which a purveyor of whale oil wanted

Legal definitions are not necessarily factual ones. The classic example is the 1818 US Court case "Maurice v. Judd" [1] in which a purveyor of whale oil wanted to avoid paying the taxes which were applied to fish oil, on the grounds that whales aren't fish. The court ruled that for the purposes of taxation, they were. [1] http://nycourts.gov/history/legal-history-new-york/legal-history-eras-02/history-new-york-legal-eras-maurice-judd.html http://nycourts.gov/history/legal-history-new-york/legal-his...