Star Trek: TNG - Season 2 Dec 4

[Captain Mal]

Originally Posted by blonde_devil

to be fair, i haven't been the biggest fan of "Measure of a Man" either. it has one huge flaw - how can Data be Starfleet properly when he wasn't created by Starfleet? He applied and had to be accepted like anyone else - the episode makes that very clear. He also went through the Academy - the info wasn't just downloaded into him and he left the next day for starship duty. Is Picard Starfleet property? the Enterprise computer is one thing since it is a creation of Starfleet but Data, totally different. I think it is a well done episode but i never could understand why everyone felt Starfleet owned Data. Because of that, i can see a B rating.

He's probably considered Starfleet property because they found him. That's mentioned in the episode, "Datalore".