[dragonwriter]

> Possession is 9 points of the law was the original quote - it's just been bastardized over the years.

Its not that much of a bastardization, as a modernization -- the original seems to have been "possession is 11 points in the law (and they say there are but 12)", which was decimalized from 11 and 12 to 9 and 10, sometimes used with the "9" alone and the last part omitted, and later simplified to 9/10. The original sense of the statement is preserved, which is why I wouldn't call it a "bastardization".