Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful.

Rules are downstream of damage, not the source of it. A prohibition exists because someone noticed what the behaviour does to people, and the rule is that observation written down. Treating the rule as the whole story leads to a thin kind of reasoning, where the only question left is whether you will be caught. Better to ask what harm it was built to prevent, and whether your case escapes it.

When you find yourself looking for an exemption, name the injury being guarded against and check whether your case avoids it. Sometimes it genuinely does. More often the exemption is a way of not looking at the injury.