Consider this: the friend doesn't give the person permission to use that wood carving. it is theft, regardless of whether he returned the original or not. You're confusing who should represent who in your example. The person who owns the wood carving would be the company or developer, not the end user who bought the product and then let their friends make copies.
As for your first part, I'd really like to see your proof that countries don't consider software piracy a form of theft that carries with it fines and/or imprisonment. Which is generally what I was getting at with my point a while ago, whether or not you want to get precise to the definition of everything.
I would have thought that was obvious.