Terms of service

1. Agreement to These Terms

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") form a binding agreement between Cosmic Thread Software ("Cosmic Thread," "we," "us," or "our") and you and govern your use of Backshelf (the "Service").

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not create an account or use the Service.

If you use the Service on behalf of another person or organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that person or organization to these Terms.

2. The Service

Backshelf is a software service that allows users to record physical video games they own or intend to buy, organize those records, maintain wishlists and collections, and view reference information associated with catalog items.

The Service is provided on free and paid tiers as described in section 4.

We do not sell video games.

We are not a party to any transaction you enter into with a retailer, marketplace, seller, collector, or other third party. We are not responsible for any transaction you enter into through information displayed by the Service and have no responsibility for disputes between you and a third-party seller or buyer.

The Service contains links to third-party retailers where an item may be purchased. Some of these links are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission on a qualifying purchase made through one, at no additional cost to you. An affiliate relationship does not affect which retailers or prices are shown in the Service.

3. Eligibility and Your Account

You must be at least 13 years old to create or hold an account, and you must meet any higher minimum age required by the law applicable to you.

By creating an account, you represent that you satisfy the applicable age requirement and that the information you provide is accurate and not misleading.

Unless we expressly permit otherwise, you may maintain only one personal account.

You must not:

• share your account credentials with another person;
• allow another person to use your account;
• use another person's account;
• attempt to access an account that is not yours; or
• provide false or misleading information in connection with your account.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for activity occurring through your account, except to the extent caused by our own failure to protect your account.

Tell us promptly at [email protected] if you believe your account has been accessed without authorization.

4. Free and Paid Tiers

A free account currently includes:

• access to the full catalog;
• an unlimited collection; and
• up to 20 wishlist items.

A paid subscription ("Pro") currently includes:

• an unlimited wishlist;
• custom shelves;
• budgets;
• the Ledger; and
• public collection and wishlist pages.

Current pricing and plan details are shown on the pricing page at the time of purchase.

Export, import, and synchronization are included on both free and paid tiers. We will not place your existing records behind a subscription merely because you cancel or downgrade a paid plan.

We may change the features included in a tier as described in section 13.

5. Subscriptions, Billing, and Automatic Renewal

A third-party payment provider acts as the merchant of record for Pro subscriptions. That provider processes payments, issues payment receipts, and may administer applicable sales tax or similar transaction taxes. It is identified to you at checkout, and its own terms apply to the payment. We do not receive or store your full payment-card number.

Automatic renewal

Unless you cancel, a Pro subscription automatically renews at the end of each billing period.

At renewal, you will be charged the price then applicable to your plan using your payment method on file.

Any introductory or promotional price applies only for the period disclosed at the time you subscribe. After that period, the subscription renews at the applicable standard price unless otherwise stated at checkout.

Before you purchase a subscription, we will disclose the material subscription terms, including the applicable price, billing frequency, introductory pricing where applicable, and cancellation method.

You authorize the applicable payment provider to charge your selected payment method for recurring subscription charges until you cancel.

Price changes

If we increase the price of your subscription, we will provide notice before the new price applies to a renewal, as required by applicable law.

If you do not wish to continue at the new price, you may cancel before the renewal.

Cancellation

You may cancel a Pro subscription at any time through Settings.

Cancellation stops future renewal charges. Unless applicable law requires otherwise, cancellation does not automatically terminate the current paid period, and you will retain access to paid features until the end of the period for which you have paid.

We will not require you to contact a representative merely to cancel a subscription that you can cancel online.

6. Cancellation and Refunds

You may cancel your subscription at any time through Settings.

When you cancel, the subscription remains active through the end of the paid billing period unless applicable law or a specific refund policy provides otherwise. After that period, your account reverts to the free tier.

Downgrading does not delete your collection or wishlist. Paid-only features may become unavailable or read-only, but your existing records remain available to you and export remains available.

First-payment refund

If you request a refund of your first Pro payment within 14 days after that payment, we will refund that payment in full and you do not need to provide a reason.

You may request the refund by contacting [email protected] or through the refund or support mechanism provided with your payment receipt.

Except where required by applicable law or otherwise stated by us, we do not refund amounts attributable to a billing period that has already begun.

Nothing in these Terms limits any mandatory statutory right to cancel, withdraw, obtain a refund, or receive other consumer remedies.

7. Your Content

Information and material that you enter into or upload to the Service remains yours ("Your Content"). We do not claim ownership of Your Content.

You are responsible for Your Content and represent that you have the rights and permissions necessary to enter it into the Service and to authorize the uses described in these Terms.

You grant Cosmic Thread a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, modify as technically necessary, and display Your Content solely as reasonably necessary to:

• provide and operate the Service for you;
• synchronize and back up your records;
• provide features you request;
• maintain and secure the Service;
• publish the pages that you choose to publish under section 8; and
• create aggregated or deidentified information as described in our Privacy Policy.

We will not sell Your Content in a form that identifies you, and we will not use Your Content for advertising unrelated to the Service. This does not restrict our use of aggregated or deidentified information as described in our Privacy Policy.

We do not use Your Content in a form that identifies you to train machine-learning models.

The license ends when you delete the applicable content or your account, except to the extent reasonably necessary to complete deletion, maintain ordinary backups for a limited period, comply with law, resolve disputes, prevent fraud or abuse, or otherwise protect the Service.

Nothing in these Terms gives us ownership of Your Content.

8. Public Collection and Wishlist Pages

A Pro account may publish its collection, wishlist, or both using a handle selected by the account holder.

Publication is disabled unless you enable it.

The information displayed on a public page is described in our Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for what you choose to publish.

You should publish only information that you are comfortable making publicly available. Public pages may be accessible to anyone, may be indexed by search engines, and may be copied, cached, archived, or redistributed by third parties.

Disabling or deleting a public page removes it from the Service, but we cannot recall copies that third parties have already made.

We may suspend or remove a public page that violates these Terms, applicable law, or the rights of another person.

9. Acceptable Use

You may use the Service only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms.

You must not:

• interfere with the Service, its infrastructure, or its security;
• attempt to access accounts, systems, data, or information that is not yours;
• introduce malware, malicious code, or other harmful material;
• probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service without our written authorization;
• place an unreasonable load on the Service or use automated means in a manner that interferes with its operation;
• circumvent or attempt to circumvent limits or restrictions applicable to your account or subscription;
• use the Service to harass, threaten, defame, or unlawfully harm another person;
• publish or transmit content that is unlawful or that infringes another person's intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
• impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation with another person or organization;
• resell, sublicense, rent, lease, or otherwise make the Service available to third parties as a separate service;
• access, collect, or extract catalog information or other content from the Service by automated means, including scraping, crawling, harvesting, or bulk downloading, except as we expressly permit in writing;
• use the Service or catalog to build or operate a competing database or service through systematic extraction; or
• use the Service in a manner that violates applicable law.

We may investigate suspected violations and take action reasonably necessary to protect the Service, its users, and third parties.

10. Our Intellectual Property and the Catalog

The Service, including its software, user interface, design, branding, and the Backshelf name, is owned by Cosmic Thread or its licensors and is protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for your personal, non-commercial purposes.

Except as expressly permitted by these Terms or applicable law, you may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, sublicense, reverse engineer, decompile, or create derivative works of the Service.

Catalog information

The Backshelf catalog contains reference information compiled from third-party and other sources.

Catalog information may be inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, or incorrectly associated with an item.

Prices displayed in the Service are estimates and are not offers to sell.

You are responsible for verifying information before relying on it to make a purchase or other decision.

You may use catalog information through the Service for its intended personal purpose.

You may not collect, scrape, crawl, harvest, index, copy, store, or otherwise extract catalog information from the Service, by manual or automated means, and you may not use, publish, distribute, resell, or otherwise make catalog information available outside the Service. This applies to catalog information wherever it appears in the Service, including on a public collection or wishlist page.

You may not use catalog information to create, populate, train, or operate any other database, dataset, model, product, or service.

These restrictions do not apply to catalog information contained in an export of your own records, which you may keep and use for your own personal, non-commercial purposes, and they do not apply where applicable law expressly permits the use.

These restrictions do not limit your rights in Your Content.

11. Copyright Complaints

If you believe that material available through a public Backshelf page infringes your copyright, you may send a copyright-infringement notice to our designated copyright contact.

Your notice should contain the information required by applicable copyright law, including the information required by 17 U.S.C. section 512(c)(3) where that provision applies.

Copyright contact:
Cosmic Thread Software
[email protected]

We may remove or disable access to material that is the subject of a valid infringement notice.

Where required by law, we will notify the affected account holder and provide information about the applicable counter-notification process.

We may terminate accounts of repeat infringers where required or permitted by applicable law.

Nothing in this section requires us to resolve ownership disputes between users or third parties.

12. Suspension and Termination

You may close your account at any time through Settings.

Closing your account cancels any active Pro subscription, deletes your account and user records from our active systems, and removes your public pages. Account deletion cannot be undone.

Export your records before closing your account if you want to retain a copy.

Our Privacy Policy explains what information may remain after account deletion.

Suspension or termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your account if:

• you materially breach these Terms;
• your use of the Service creates a security risk;
• your conduct subjects Cosmic Thread, its users, or service providers to unlawful conduct, fraud, abuse, or material risk;
• we are required to do so by law; or
• continued provision of the Service to you is not reasonably possible.

Where a violation can reasonably be corrected, we will ordinarily notify you and provide a reasonable opportunity to correct it before terminating your account.

We may act immediately where necessary to address security threats, fraud, serious abuse, unlawful conduct, or other circumstances where delay could harm the Service or another person.

Where reasonably possible, we will allow you an opportunity to export your records before termination. We may withhold access to export where doing so is necessary to comply with law, protect security, or prevent abuse.

Termination for business reasons

We may discontinue the Service and close accounts if we sell, transfer, wind down, or cease operating all or part of our business, or if we are otherwise unable or unwilling to continue providing the Service.

Where we close your account for a reason described in this subsection, we will give you the notice described in section 13 and refund the unused portion of a prepaid Pro subscription on the basis described in that section. This does not apply to an account already terminated for a reason described above in this section.

If we sell or transfer the business and the acquirer continues the Service, your account may instead transfer to the acquirer as described in section 18, in which case the Service continues and your account is not closed. Our Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is handled in that situation.

Sections concerning Your Content, intellectual property, acceptable use, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, disputes, and other provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive termination.

13. Changes to the Service and These Terms

We may add, modify, suspend, or discontinue features.

The Service may also become temporarily unavailable because of maintenance, technical problems, security incidents, or failures affecting our service providers or infrastructure.

We do not guarantee that every feature will remain available indefinitely.

Discontinuation

If we permanently discontinue the Service, we will ordinarily provide at least 30 days' advance notice by email so that you have an opportunity to export your records.

If we permanently discontinue the Service, we will refund the unused portion of a prepaid Pro subscription, unless the discontinuation results from circumstances where providing such notice or refund is not reasonably possible or is prohibited by law.

Changes to these Terms

We may amend these Terms from time to time.

The effective date identifies the current version.

If we make a material change to these Terms, we will provide notice before the change takes effect, as required by applicable law.

If the change materially affects your rights or obligations, we may require you to affirmatively accept the updated Terms before continuing to use affected portions of the Service.

Otherwise, your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms to the extent permitted by law.

14. Disclaimers

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE AND CATALOG ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE."

We disclaim all warranties, representations, and conditions, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement, except to the extent such warranties cannot lawfully be excluded.

We do not warrant that:

• the Service will be uninterrupted;
• the Service will be secure or error-free;
• the Service will meet every particular requirement;
• information in the catalog will be accurate, complete, or current;
• catalog prices will match prices charged by retailers or sellers; or
• Your Content will never be lost, corrupted, or unavailable.

You remain responsible for maintaining your own backup of important information.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any warranty or consumer right that cannot legally be excluded or limited.

15. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cosmic Thread will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill, or data, arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cosmic Thread's total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the amount you paid to Cosmic Thread for the Service during the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

These limitations apply regardless of the legal theory on which a claim is based and even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot legally be excluded or limited.

16. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Cosmic Thread and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from third-party claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, and reasonable legal fees arising from:

• Your Content;
• a public page you publish;
• your material breach of these Terms; or
• your unlawful or unauthorized use of the Service.

This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim results from Cosmic Thread's own negligence, willful misconduct, or violation of applicable law.

We will provide reasonably prompt notice of a claim for which indemnification is sought, except that failure to provide prompt notice will relieve you of your obligations only to the extent you are materially prejudiced by the delay.

We may participate in the defense of an indemnified claim with counsel of our choice at our own expense.

You may control the defense of the claim, provided that you may not settle a claim in a way that admits liability by or imposes obligations on Cosmic Thread without our prior written consent.

17. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, except to the extent mandatory law applicable to you provides otherwise.

Subject to mandatory consumer-protection laws, you and Cosmic Thread agree that disputes arising from these Terms or the Service will be brought in the state or federal courts located in California, and you consent to their jurisdiction.

If you are a consumer resident outside California, nothing in these Terms deprives you of mandatory consumer protections or rights that cannot lawfully be waived in your place of residence, including any right to bring proceedings in a court that has jurisdiction under mandatory law.

Before filing a legal claim, please contact us at [email protected] and give us a reasonable opportunity to resolve the dispute informally. This does not prevent you from exercising any legal right or filing a claim within an applicable limitation period.

18. General

These Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and Cosmic Thread concerning the Service and supersede prior agreements or understandings concerning the same subject.

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, if possible. If it cannot be made enforceable, it will be severed and the remaining provisions will continue in effect.

Our failure to enforce a provision of these Terms is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our prior written consent.

We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, or other transfer of all or part of our business, provided that the transferee assumes applicable obligations under these Terms.

We may provide notices to you by email to the address associated with your account, through the Service, or by other reasonable means.

We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, governmental action, widespread Internet or infrastructure failures, cyberattacks, or failures of third-party service providers.

19. Contact Us

Cosmic Thread Software
California, United States

Questions, notices, complaints, and other communications concerning these Terms may be sent to [email protected].

For information about our handling of personal information, see the Backshelf Privacy Policy.