[Avodah] Geneivas Da'as

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 03:54:00PM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: As RSP wrote on Areivim, even if the readership doesn't know exactly  which 
: photo is altered, they know that photos are altered...

I think I'm about to make a similar point to the one RET just did when
he wrote:
> I would assume that everything depends on the reason for the deception
> and how common it is. If a virtual secretary is to save money, I don't
> see any difficulty. If OTOH the virtual secretary is to impress clients
> that there is an office with a secretary when it is a facade I would
> assume it is prohibited

I'm not sure purpose matters, beyond the limited list in the gemara. IOW,
if it was to save money but rare, it's still assur.

However, I would have phrased the other issue not being essentially about
frequency, but rather expectation. If it's common, then people make
allowances for it. Makeup is common, it's fair to assume that people
won't assume a woman walking down the street isn't wearing any. If the
audience would natually assume they are getting the facts, then there
is a problem if they aren't.

My assumption is that since it's a mi'ut of the pictures, people who look
at the picture who have no idea there once was a woman in it are misled.
Even if they know the paper's policy is that they could alter photos to
remove women, it's not likely to cross someone's mind that this was done
in this particular instance.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
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