"a person who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or threat of violence."

Ok, as he didn't steal, he's not a thief.  He didn't steal, as per all the definitions you gave above, as I showed you, because in order to steal, you have to assign yourself unlawfully/wrongly other people's property, and that didn't happen.  He assigned himself lawfully and hence rightly that property, because rightful and legal is defined by the code, and he asked the code, and the code gave it to him.

So now that we all agree that it wasn't theft, and that he wasn't a thief, were do we stand ?