[tremon]

I think that's just an unfortunate consequence of overloading in the English language (and others, btw). One of the meanings of the word "property" is just "ownership" and has nothing to do with the physicality of the items under discussion. In Dutch, it's called intellectueel eigendom which translates as ownership, not property. When the Dutch "eigendom" refers to physical items, it's usually used in the plural (e.g. mijn eigendommen == my belongings).