Terms of Service

1. Who you're agreeing with

These terms are an agreement between you and tapeshelf, the service at tapeshelf.com. They apply whenever you use tapeshelf, with an account or without one: for example, when you open a temporary link someone sent you or trade as a guest. Paying for Pro is a separate purchase from Paddle, our reseller (see section 9). If you have a question about these terms, write to contact@tapeshelf.com.

2. Who can use tapeshelf

You must be at least 18 years old. You are responsible for what happens under your account: keep your password, and your recovery codes if you use two-step sign-in, to yourself, and tell us if you think someone else has got in. We may refuse or close an account that breaks these terms.

3. Your videos stay yours

Everything you upload remains yours, including videos you upload as a guest for an exchange. By uploading a video to tapeshelf's servers, you agree that it is stored and processed there as these terms and the Privacy Policy describe. You give tapeshelf only the permission it needs to run the service: to store your videos, remove the metadata from each new file, convert them for streaming (into other formats, sizes and quality), take a fingerprint of each file, make a cover and a 16-frame preview, apply the edits you make in the video editor, show them to the people you have allowed, and let the people described in section 5 download them. This permission is free of charge. Once you delete a video, we use it only for what the Privacy Policy lists for deleted videos; files that people downloaded before that stay with them. We don't use your videos for anything else, and we don't sell or license them to anyone.

You must have the right to share what you upload: your own recordings, or videos whose owner has allowed it.

Videos you save from other sites, for example with the tapeshelf browser extension, are your uploads too. Save only what you have the right to keep: your own videos, videos you bought, videos you may keep for yourself. A rights holder can report them like any other video, and we remove and block what infringes their rights.

4. Sharing is permanent

What to know before you share:

• When you share or trade a video, the other person keeps a copy on their shelf for as long as the video exists. It can't be taken back, and they may trade it onward.
• A temporary link lets whoever has it (with its password or email code, if you set one) watch and download its videos until it runs out or you revoke it. A signed-in person can also add them to their shelf, and those copies stay for good, like any shared video.
• A guest without an account can offer an exchange for your private video, and anyone can start a deal through your exchange link, which works until you revoke it. To stop guest offers for your private videos, turn off “Take exchanges from guests” in Settings → Profile → Exchanges; exchange links work either way. Nothing changes hands until you both agree.
• The cover and the 16-frame preview of a private video are visible to anyone who can see the shelf it's on.
• Your username stays on your videos as the author wherever they go.
• Deleting a video you uploaded removes it from every shelf, including those of people you shared or traded it with. For 30 days (90 days on Pro) you can bring it back from “Deleted”; after that, or once you delete it from there or empty “Deleted”, it can't be brought back, for you or for them.
• Deleting a video someone gave you removes only your copy. It stays with its author and everyone else who has it.

If you trade as a guest, your videos are kept locked while the deal is open: the other side sees only their title, length, size, quality and frame preview. A deal runs out after three days without a new step. If it is declined, cancelled or runs out, your videos are deleted from our servers right away. If the exchange happens, the other side keeps your videos for good, as in any trade, with “Guest” shown as the author, and you can watch and download what you received on the deal page for a week. To keep it for good, sign in or create an account: the deal and your videos move into it.

5. Downloads

• Anyone who is signed in can download the original file of a video they hold (their own uploads and videos shared or traded to them) and of any public video. Authors can't switch downloads off.
• On Free: 10 downloads a calendar month, at up to 1 MB/s and one at a time. Videos you uploaded yourself never count toward the limit.
• On Pro: no monthly limit and full speed.
• Whoever has a temporary link (and its password or email code, if it asks for one) can download its videos while the link works, with or without an account, at full speed and outside the monthly limit.
• A guest can download what they received in an exchange from the deal page for a week after it, also without limits.
• Without an account, these two are the only ways to download.
• A downloaded file is a copy outside tapeshelf: deleting the video here doesn't reach it. Share a video only with people you're happy to have keep it.

6. What's not allowed

• Uploading or sharing videos you have no right to share.
• Illegal content of any kind, and any content that sexualises or endangers minors.
• Harassment, threats and hate.
• Spam: mass requests, offers and messages nobody asked for.
• Getting around the protections: accessing videos you weren't given, capturing or redistributing streams, automated use of the site, or anything that interferes with it working for others.

How to tell us about a video that uses your work or breaks the law: see section 7.

7. Reports and enforcement

Every video and profile has a Report button, and we review every report. Depending on what we find, we may remove a video, close requests or ban an account. When we remove your video, we tell you — in the app and by email — which rule it broke, with a note from the moderator; if you think it's a mistake, write to contact@tapeshelf.com and we'll look at it again. A file removed for breaking the rules may be blocked from being uploaded again.

A banned account's page disappears, while videos its owner had already shared or traded stay with the people who hold them. The person who reported is told how it was resolved.

To report a video or a profile that uses your work without permission or breaks the law, you don't need an account. Press Report in its menu, or write to contact@tapeshelf.com with: the link to each video or profile; what is wrong (which work of yours is used, or why the content is illegal); your name and email address; for copyright, that you own the rights or may act for the person who does; and a statement that you believe, in good faith, that your notice is accurate and complete. A person reviews every notice. We don't give your name to the uploader unless the law requires it. Someone who keeps sending clearly unfounded notices may be ignored, and repeated or serious violations lead to a ban. contact@tapeshelf.com is also our single point of contact for authorities under the EU Digital Services Act; notices in DMCA format are welcome at the same address.

8. Pro, the paid plan

tapeshelf is free to use. Pro is an optional subscription with more room, downloads without limits and a few extra tools, such as the video editor; what each plan includes is on the pricing page.

• Price: €9.99 a month or €59.99 a year, VAT included.
• The subscription renews automatically at the end of each month or year until you cancel it.
• You can cancel at any time in Paddle's customer portal, which opens from Settings → Plan. Pro then stays until the end of the period you've paid for and doesn't renew.
• If a renewal payment fails, Pro stays on for up to 7 days while you update your payment method; after that the account moves to Free. A successful payment brings Pro back for the new period.
• When Pro ends, nothing is deleted. If your shelf holds more than Free allows, new uploads pause until you free up space, and everything already on it stays and plays as before. Deleted videos can then be brought back for 30 days, as on Free, counted from the day you deleted them — older ones can no longer be restored. If you hid your page, it opens to everyone again.
• If we change the price, we'll tell you before it applies to your next renewal, so you can cancel before then.

9. Payments, VAT and refunds

Pro is sold by Paddle.com, our reseller and merchant of record. When you buy Pro, you buy it from Paddle: Paddle takes the payment, charges VAT, issues the invoice and handles refunds and payment questions under its buyer terms. We never see your card details.

• If you're a consumer in the EU or the UK, the law may give you 14 days to withdraw from the purchase. Paddle handles such requests under its buyer terms, which also say when this right ends — for example, once you have started using what you bought.
• Apart from that, cancelling stops future renewals but doesn't refund the period already paid for: Pro runs until it ends.
• If you delete your account, the subscription is cancelled at once, and the rest of the paid period isn't refunded.
• If your account is banned for breaking these terms, the subscription is cancelled from the end of the paid period, and nothing is refunded. If the ban is lifted before then, the subscription carries on.

Questions about a charge can go to Paddle (the receipt email says how) or to us at contact@tapeshelf.com.

10. Limits and fair use

Both plans have limits: the size of one video, the room on your shelf, a daily number of requests and, on Free, downloads. The current numbers are on the pricing page. Exchanges with guests have limits of their own: a guest offers up to 5 videos in one deal, each no larger than Free allows, and can have up to three open deals at a time. Limits keep the service fast and affordable for everyone; use that overloads it, such as automated use, may be slowed down or stopped on any plan.

We may change the limits. If a change makes a plan less generous, we'll say so on the site before it takes effect. A change never deletes anything you already have: if your shelf ends up over a new limit, new uploads simply pause until there's room again.

11. Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time in Settings → Account. Deletion is immediate and permanent: your profile disappears, and your videos vanish from every shelf and can't be brought back. A Pro subscription is cancelled at the same moment (section 9). Your username is never given to anyone else. Messages you sent remain visible to the people you sent them to, labelled as coming from a deleted user. What we keep after that, and for how long, is in the Privacy Policy.

12. The service

tapeshelf has no ads. We work to keep it running, but it may pause for maintenance or be interrupted for reasons we don't control. Features may change over time; where a change affects what you already have, we'll say so on the site first.

13. No guarantees

tapeshelf is provided as is. We work to keep it running and your videos safe, but we can't promise it will never be interrupted or that nothing will ever be lost — keep your own copies of anything you can't afford to lose. To the extent the law allows, tapeshelf isn't liable for losses that come from using, or not being able to use, the service. Nothing in these terms limits the rights the law gives you as a consumer.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change matters, we'll announce it on the site before it takes effect; using tapeshelf after that means you accept the new terms. The date at the top tells you when they last changed.