Bookshelf Corner
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Terms of Service

Rules for using bookshelfcorner.com. By registering, you agree to all the points below.

Last updated: June 4, 2026

1. Definitions

  • Platform / Service — the website, applications, APIs, and all technology systems operated under the bookshelfcorner.com name.
  • We / Operator — the operator of bookshelfcorner.com.
  • User — anyone who accesses the Platform, with or without an account.
  • Buyer — a User who purchases an ebook on the Platform.
  • Author — a User who has been verified as an author and uses the Platform to sell their works.
  • Work — a PDF ebook together with metadata (title, description, cover, tags) uploaded by an Author.
  • Transaction — the purchase of one Work by one Buyer.

2. Acceptance of Terms

By registering an account, accessing, or using the Platform, Users declare that they have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Platform.

We reserve the right to amend these Terms at any time. Significant changes will be notified via email and/or a banner on the Platform at least 14 days before taking effect. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of changes constitutes acceptance of the new terms.

3. User Eligibility

  • Users must be at least 13 years old.
  • Users under 13 may only use the Platform under parental/guardian supervision.
  • Authors must have a verified PayPal account to receive royalty payouts.
  • Users whose accounts were previously permanently suspended may not re-register.

4. User Account

  • Users must provide accurate, complete, and current data when registering.
  • One person may only have one account. Duplicate accounts will be suspended.
  • Users are fully responsible for the confidentiality of their password and all activities from their account.
  • Users must immediately notify us if their account is hacked or accessed by an unauthorized party.
  • We are not responsible for losses due to Users' failure to secure their own accounts.

5. Buyer Rights & Obligations

5.1 Buyer Rights

  • Free preview of the first 5 pages of every book before purchasing.
  • After paying, receive a personal-watermarked PDF download link valid for 30 days, max 5 re-downloads.
  • Read, save, and print the purchased PDF for personal use.
  • Request a refund within 7 days for technical reasons (broken file / cannot be opened).
  • Submit complaints through official support channels.

5.2 Buyer Obligations

  • Strictly prohibited: distributing, uploading, sharing, reselling, or re-broadcasting purchased PDFs — in whole or in part, with or without watermark removal.
  • Prohibited: removing, modifying, obscuring, or attempting to obscure the personal watermark.
  • Prohibited: reverse-engineering, automated screenscraping, or abusing Platform APIs.
  • Prohibited: creating fake accounts / using another person's identity when purchasing.
  • Fully responsible for the security of devices where PDFs are stored — leaks from Buyer's devices are the Buyer's responsibility.

Consequences of violation: we reserve the right to deactivate accounts, report to law enforcement, and seek damages, including Author losses from illegal distribution of works.

6. Author Rights & Obligations

6.1 Author Rights

  • Set the price of Works in the range $1.00 – $99.99.
  • Receive 70% of the gross price for each sale (affiliate 10%, platform 20%, see commission page).
  • Receive royalties in USD via PayPal on the 5th of the following month (minimum threshold $5.00 & 7-day cooling period).
  • Edit, archive, or withdraw Works at any time (existing Buyers retain download access).
  • View real-time sales statistics in the Author dashboard.

6.2 Author Representations & Warranties (very important)

By submitting a Work, the Author declares and warrants that:

  1. The Author is the legitimate owner of all copyright in that Work, or has obtained all necessary permissions/licenses from the rights holder;
  2. The Work does not infringe the copyright, trademark, patent, privacy rights, or other legal rights of any third party;
  3. The Work is not plagiarized, pirated, or an unauthorized copy of another work;
  4. The Work does not contain prohibited content (see §7);
  5. All provided data (identity, PayPal, etc.) is true and accurate;
  6. If the Work was created with AI assistance (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.), the Author honestly discloses this in the "AI Disclosure" field during upload.

The Author fully indemnifies us against all claims, lawsuits, losses, and legal fees arising from violations of the above representations, including our legal costs to defend or settle third-party claims arising from the Author's uploaded Work.

6.3 License Granted by Author to Platform

By submitting a Work, the Author grants us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable (except to our infrastructure providers such as CDN, storage) license, limited to operational use of the Platform, namely to:

  • Store, reproduce, and display Work metadata (title, cover, description, 5-page preview) on the Platform and our marketing channels;
  • Process payments and generate watermarked PDFs for legitimate Buyers;
  • Archive the Work for backup and audit purposes;
  • Display the Work in search results and recommendations.

This license is valid while the Work is active on the Platform, and automatically ends when the Work is archived (except for Buyers who purchased before archiving — they retain access to their files for the duration of the active download link).

Copyright of the Work remains 100% with the Author. We claim no ownership of the Work itself.

7. Prohibited Content

Uploaded Works are prohibited from containing, promoting, or facilitating:

  • Pornography, sexual exploitation, or obscene content (including involving minors);
  • Hate speech, discrimination, incitement to violence;
  • Plagiarism / piracy from other parties' works;
  • Instructions for creating weapons, explosives, or illegal drugs;
  • Information that violates others' privacy (personal data without permission);
  • Fraud, pyramid schemes, concealed multi-level marketing;
  • Unsubstantiated health/medical practices that could cause harm;
  • Material that violates applicable laws in the jurisdiction of the user or operator.

Violating Works will be immediately removed, and depending on the severity of the violation: accounts may be permanently suspended, pending royalties cancelled, and reports filed with law enforcement.

8. Moderation Process

  • Every uploaded Work enters a queue for manual review by admin before publication (target 1–2 business days).
  • We reserve the right to reject Works with or without a stated reason, or request revisions.
  • For Works edited after going live: substantial changes (new PDF file, title, description) will re-enter review.
  • We also use automated tools (AI) for pre-screening covers and content — but final decisions remain with human admin.

9. Copyright Infringement Reports (Notice & Takedown)

Rights holders who believe their work is being sold on bookshelfcorner.com without permission may submit a report including:

  1. Identification of the original work owned (title, description, link if available);
  2. Specific URL of the Work on the Platform being reported;
  3. Proof of ownership (copyright certificate, original timestamped manuscript, contract, ISBN, etc.);
  4. Reporter identity & contact information (email, phone, address);
  5. A good-faith statement that the use of the work on the Platform is not authorized by the rights holder;
  6. A statement that the information in the report is accurate, and the reporter is the rights holder or authorized to act on their behalf;
  7. Signature (physical or electronic).

Send the report to abuse@bookshelfcorner.com. We will:

  • Confirm receipt within 1 business day;
  • Deactivate the reported Work during the verification process (within 3 business days of receiving the report);
  • Notify the reported Author to provide a response (counter-notice);
  • Make a decision based on evidence from both parties.

False / defamatory reports may have legal consequences for the reporter.

10. Payments & Royalties

  • Buyer payments are processed via PayPal (Visa, Mastercard, Amex debit/credit cards or PayPal balance).
  • Currency: prices are set in USD. Buyers pay in USD via PayPal.
  • Royalty & commission currency: always USD. Authors and affiliates are paid in USD via PayPal.
  • Commission split: Author 70%, Affiliate 10%, Platform 20% of the gross USD price.
  • Royalty payout: on the 5th of the following month via PayPal in USD, for transactions that have passed the 7-day cooling period, with a minimum threshold of $5.00. Balances below the threshold carry over.
  • The Platform reserves the right to withhold payouts in cases of suspected fraud, disputes, or unresolved issues.

11. Refunds

Buyers are entitled to a refund within 7 calendar days of payment, only for technical reasons:

  • PDF file broken / cannot be opened in a standard reader;
  • PDF pages blank, corrupted, or technically not matching the description;
  • Double charge — must be reported within 24 hours.

Not valid reasons for refund: disliking the content, having read it and regretting it, subjective price concerns, or other subjective reasons. Buyers are encouraged to use the free 5-page preview before purchasing.

Approved refunds will be returned via the original payment method within 3–14 business days, or as a platform credit (at Buyer's choice). The related Author balance will be deducted accordingly.

12. Account Termination & Suspension

We reserve the right to deactivate or close accounts, with or without prior notice, if:

  • Users violate these Terms of Service;
  • Registration data is proven false or misleading;
  • There are indications of piracy, plagiarism, fraud, or illegal activity;
  • Work content violates §7;
  • There is an official request from law enforcement or a court order;
  • Users are inactive for more than 24 months.

Authors whose accounts are suspended: royalties already in the available balance will still be paid (unless there is a contrary court order); pending royalties from Works removed for violations will be withheld.

13. User-Generated Content (UGC)

When Users submit feedback, reviews, comments, or other communications to the Platform, Users grant us a non-exclusive license to display, modify (for moderation), and use that content in accordance with Platform operations. We reserve the right to remove content that violates §7 or is irrelevant without notice.

14. Third-Party Services & Links

The Platform uses third-party services including PayPal (payments), Cloudflare (CDN & storage), Google (OAuth), and AI moderation services. Use of those services is subject to each provider's own terms. We are not responsible for the actions/violations/negligence of third parties.

15. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Platform is provided "as-is" and "as-available". To the extent permitted by law, we make no warranties, express or implied, including warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted service, or accuracy of information. We do not guarantee the Platform will be free from bugs, downtime, or security breaches, though we make every effort.

The quality of Work content is the Author's responsibility. We do not verify the accuracy, truthfulness, or completeness of Work content — Buyers must evaluate for themselves before purchasing (use the free preview).

16. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by applicable law:

  • We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages (loss of profits, data loss, etc.);
  • Our total cumulative liability to any User for any claim in the last 12 months shall not exceed the total transactions the User paid to us in that period, or $20 (whichever is greater);
  • This limitation applies to all claims (contract, tort, negligence, or otherwise), except for: obligations that cannot be excluded under applicable consumer protection law.

17. Force Majeure

We are not responsible for delays or service failures due to circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, civil unrest, pandemics, widespread power/internet failures, large-scale cyberattacks, government orders, or disruptions at third-party providers we use.

18. Platform Intellectual Property

The logo, name "bookshelfcorner" / "bookshelfcorner.com", interface design, Platform source code, and illustrations/graphics we create are our property and protected by copyright and trademark law. Users may not use, reproduce, or create derivative works without written permission.

Using the bookshelfcorner.com name/logo for testimonials or referencing the Platform (e.g. "available on bookshelfcorner.com") is permitted as fair use without permission, as long as it is not misleading.

19. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

  • These Terms are governed by and interpreted in accordance with applicable law.
  • Any dispute will first be resolved through good-faith negotiation within 30 days of one party notifying the other in writing.
  • If no resolution is reached, disputes will be resolved through binding arbitration or applicable consumer protection channels.

20. Official Contact