With the car analogy, you are depriving the owner of exclusive use of it. With code, you are depriving the owner of exclusive use of it. I see no difference.
with the car analogy, you're depriving the owner of any and all use of it, and also of its resale value.
with code, you are only depriving the owner of exclusivity, and then only if you use that code in the real world. and even then, it only becomes material harm if you actually use it to compete with them.
Yeah I think in the case of code or any intellectual property they should only be able to sue if you made actual use of it and it can be shown to have directly impacted the business. And in that case it should be handle as a civil lawsuit over criminal.
I feel the same should be done for counterfeit goods.
