The analogy with a car is specious. There is just one car, as opposed to unlimited copies of a file. Plus the State has vested interests in automobile ownership and licensing. If on the other hand you had a stolen copy of _1984_ on your coffee table I very seriously doubt the police would bother to repo it, believing it to be a civil matter.

My wife (who actually IS a lawyer) goes even further. If you bought your hard-copy of _1984_ in good faith (say, from a bookbinder who sold it to you instead of rebinding it for a customer), then in fact you ARE the legal owner of the book, and the customer who got screwed has to seek restitution from the bookbinder -- who might also wind up in jail guilty of fraud. I'm not sure that's justice but according to my wife, that's the law in our state.