Perhaps it can be justified on the basis of property rights. If you own a penny, you have the right to place it on your table heads up or tails up, barring ext

Perhaps it can be justified on the basis of property rights. If you own a penny, you have the right to place it on your table heads up or tails up, barring extreme circumstances. In that sense, the penny can be in two states. If you own a six-sided die, you obviously have the right to place it in any of its six natural states. If you own a hard disk, it has 2^N states, where N is the capacity in bits. You have the right to place the disk in any of those states. According to this line of thought, any regulation which deprives the property owner of the right to place his property in one of its natural states is an infringement of property rights.