Quote:
Originally Posted by khalleron
Most of the time the 'reasonable man' rule would apply to legal gray areas. Would a reasonable man consider keeping a rental an extra day theft? No, a reasonable man would not.
As far as keeping it longer, it would depend on circumstances. If you kept it because you had a heart attack and were in the hospital, you wouldn't be liable to criminal penalties. If you took it to another state and sold it, obviously you would.
Intent still matters, thankfully.
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I suspect that if you carefully read the rental contract, it would spell out pretty clearly what happens and when if you don't return it when you originally said you would. Generally, if it's a few days late, they'll call you and ask if you intend to extend the rental (which they generally don't mind, since it's more money). If you say "No, I'm just keeping the car, so there," yes, they'll call the cops on Day One, and yes, the cops will take an interest (though they may limit it to a follow-up call about the sentencing recommendations for grand theft auto, at first).
Having rented cars many, many, many times, I know that car rental companies have a damned good idea of how to handle such stuff.
(Which is to say, I don't think that's a very good analogy to violation the TOS of a web site, because the contract actually covers the circumstance in question.)