Item Creation and Item "Piracy" are generally off the table for a couple of reasons.
One is class balance. Mages can't simply steal spells from another mage. And while they can swipe a focus, they still have to bond that focus (WHich is, IMO, more costly than the money). Likewise, we don't let Samurai "steal" cyberware. So why should Hackers be able to steal programs?
The second reason is that money is one of several balancing factors in the game. Juggling software is no different than juggling magic gear or cyberware or drones and vehicles.
The third is just simplicity. We didn't want to mess with Software and Hardware degradation. That's more bookkeeping than we need, and it's poorly explained and written in the rules anyway, and too many players don't really understand how they're supposed to work. But one of the purposes of those was to simulate the fact that Pirated programs still have limits, and the longer you use them, the more likely they are to get shut down or weakened as features begin to "shut off".
Basically, in 2073, Every Commlink is unique, and has a unique signature, code, or ID number. Programs get locked into those IDs. Same way that Windows get locked to individual PCs, for example. Off the shelf programs are designed to lock on and stay locked. Custom Built Programs are coded around your hardwares unique configuration. Both have the same result: Not able to be copied to another machine. At least not easily.
Likewise, things like IC and Agents, which are designed to be a bit freer, all have unqiue ID tags to them. These prevent the IC or Agent from being run in more than one location at the same time. (Ever had a program tell you it can't boot up because it detects another copy of the program running? Same concept).
And this is to prevent the Agent Smith concept.
Keep in mind, this is a semi-unofficial explanation to explain the rationale behind the Missions ruling.
Bull