Does that include legal advice on current law about stolen goods?
Does part of the function of "find my iphone" include legal advice on current law regarding stolen goods? No. That doesn't even make any sense.
Does it make possible legal recovery of stolen goods?
Yes. I quite literally stated as much in my previous post.
Can it protect a vigilant owner from a hostile thief?
As I mentioned, if a "hostile thief" is somebody who has a good idea how to circumvent the technology than no, it doesn't offer much protection.
If a phone is lost, "Find my iPhone" can be used to find it if it was misplaced. That can be particularly useful if one doesn't notice it is missing for a while- it could have easily been misplaced in any number of places.
I read the Apple documentation and found no help on howto recovery a stolen laptop.
https://support.apple.com/kb/ph2698?locale=en_US
You are looking at the documentation for how to use the software.
From
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204756"If you believe that your Mac was stolen, contact your local law enforcement."
From
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201472"Report your lost or stolen device to local law enforcement. Law enforcement might request the serial number of your device. Find your device serial number."
In fact, it is hard to prove laptop ownership. You can not just go up to a house and walk in and find your laptop. You, not the thief will spend the night in jail.
Alright? I never stated otherwise.
As I noted, and you will probably ignore again, if the device is simply lost, and not stolen, the software can be used to find where it is.
When iPhones and laptops get stolen, it's usually a crime of opportunity, without much sophisticated planning. Somebody with loose morals sees an opportunity, like a iPhone or laptop that is unattended and swipes it. The appearance of the owner with confident claims that "they know they have it" is often enough for them to go "oh you misunderstand, I saw it was left alone and I kept it safe!" and they return it.
Oftentimes local law enforcement will happily help by merely being present- That can often be enough to make the thief capitulate. (This isn't always the case, and there are plenty of examples of both). The results of the App itself are evidence but it is not enough on it's own. If the thief answers the door with the stolen phone in their hand which can be made to make sounds through the "Find my iPhone" App by you then that could very well meet the criteria- Not to mention a thief stupid enough to answer the door with something they just stole in their hand isn't likely to have a full grasp of the law regarding this situation.
It's much less useful against the far less common thief who actually knows how to "protect" themselves to prevent you from being able to do anything. In those situations of course there isn't much you or law enforcement can do. the granularity of the GPS is not enough to count as probable cause for any sort of search. But that happens far less often, and such thieves are usually looking to steal and then resell the product to make money, and a Phone or laptop that was connected up with the "Find my iPhone" and "Find my Mac" feature becomes mostly worthless for that. An iPhone can be locked remotely. It actually turns out that you cannot actually forcibly reset or unlock it either- the icloud lock has to be released first. Aside from securing your personal data, That makes the phones worthless to them- Certainly far more worthless than a phone that doesn't have "find my iPhone" prepared on it, which can be fairly effortlessly reset and then resold on eBay.