[tlrobinson]

This brings up some interesting questions. One could also XOR some illegal data with the text of the US Constitution, then claim that the Constitution "contains" that data, you just need to XOR it with this particular key.

Obviously that's absurd, but where do you draw the line? You need specialized software and the 32 byte transaction ID in order to extract the data.

What other permanent public records could be manipulated like this?

[batgaijin]

That's the principle behind the OFF P2P system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owner_free_filing_system

US legal system is based on intent so it's kind of pointless.