Terms of use
Effective September 15, 2026
These terms cover the Shelf website and the Shelf app, both run by Alex Neyman. Using Shelf means you accept them. If you do not accept them, do not use Shelf.
Your account
You sign in with your phone number. Keep control of that number, because whoever receives the code can open your record. Tell us at a.neyman17@gmail.com if you think someone else has it.
Personal use
Shelf is for keeping your own record of what you experienced. Use it for yourself and share shelves with people you choose. Do not resell access to it, build a paid service on top of it, or pass it off as your own product.
What you may not do
- Scrape, crawl or bulk-download Shelf, by script, agent or browser automation.
- Call the API from outside the app, or work around a rate limit.
- Upload anything illegal, or anything you have no right to upload.
- Open another person’s account, or read a record they did not share with you.
- Reverse engineer Shelf, or interfere with how it runs for other people.
What you log
Your record stays yours. You give us permission to store it, show it back to you, and show it to the people you share it with, which is what running the service takes. That permission ends when you delete the content or your account.
Other people’s material
Artwork and details about films, books and places come from TMDb, Open Library and Google Places, and belong to their owners. Shelf shows them so you can tell what you logged. Shelf is not endorsed by or affiliated with any of them.
Suspension
We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, harms another person, or puts the service at risk. Where we can, we will say why and give you a chance to get your record out. You can stop using Shelf and ask us to delete your account whenever you want.
No warranty
Shelf is a private beta and is provided as is. We do not promise that it will be available, that it will keep your data without loss, or that it suits any particular purpose. Keep your own copy of anything you cannot afford to lose. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability for any claim is limited to what you have paid us, which today is nothing.
Changes
We may change these terms. The date at the top says when they last changed. Using Shelf after a change means you accept it.
Governing law
The law of the State of New York governs these terms, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute goes to the state or federal courts sitting in New York County, New York.