Meow Shelf Terms of Service

Effective November 7, 2026

This is the English version of our terms of service, prepared for users outside Korea. If it conflicts with the Korean version, the Korean version prevails, except where mandatory consumer protection law of your country of residence says otherwise.

At a glance

• Core features are free: recording books, capturing quotes, the reading timer, cats, backup and the public feed are free with no limits. Only extra share-card templates, more than 2 characters per book in the relationship diagram, viewing more than 2 tag graphs, and the Premium cat are paid.
• Pay once: a paid feature is a one-time purchase, yours for good. No subscriptions and no ads.
• Signing in is optional: adding books, saving quotes and the reading timer work without an account.
• Your words are yours: you keep the copyright of your notes and posts. We don’t take it.
• Records live on your device: deleting the app deletes them from the device. Please back up from Settings > Back up your records.
• The feed shows only what you publish. Offensive posts are not tolerated: reports are handled within 24 hours, and a post with 3 reports is hidden automatically.

1. Who we are

Meow Shelf (“the app”) is operated by NyangNyangBit (“we”, “us”), an individual developer based in the Republic of Korea.

• Email (also our point of contact for users and authorities, and for notices about content): sokurihj@gmail.com
• In the app you can also use Settings > Write a letter.

2. Definitions

• Service — everything the app offers: book records, quote capture and text recognition, wordbook (Korean only), reading timer, cat collecting, backup and the public feed.
• User — anyone using the Service.
• Consumer — a user who acts outside their trade, business, craft or profession.
• Member — a user signed in with a Google or Apple account.
• Content — quotes, notes, words, photos and other material you record in the app.
• Feed — the area where posts that users chose to publish can be seen by others.
• Paid features — features that need an in-app purchase (Section 6).

3. Accepting these terms

By installing and using the app you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Notice. Signing in is optional; without it you can use every feature that runs on your device. Members can additionally use server backup and the feed.

You must be at least 16 years old to sign in, or have the consent of the holder of parental responsibility. You are responsible for your own account and may not transfer or lend it.

4. The Service

• Adding and searching books, tracking reading status and progress
• Capturing quotes with the camera and recognising the text (OCR); notes
• Reading timer, finished-book records and cat collecting
• Characters and a relationship diagram; tags; share cards
• Backup to a file, and server backup and the feed for members

The core features above are free, without time or usage limits. We will not move a feature that is already free to a paid tier. Adding a new paid feature does not count as that. If we change what the paid features include or their price, we announce it beforehand under Section 15, and people who already bought keep their access. The app has no advertising, and we do not collect your data for advertising.

We may change or end features. We give notice of important changes that disadvantage you, and we keep supplying the Service in conformity with the contract as required by the Digital Content Directive (EU) 2019/770 where it applies to you.

5. Free and paid features

6. Buying paid features

• Paid features are bought only through in-app purchase on Apple App Store or Google Play. It is a one-time purchase with no subscription, renewal or expiry.
• The price is the one shown at checkout and includes VAT where applicable. Your bank or the store may convert currencies.
• Apple or Google processes the payment. We never receive your card or bank details.
• Your purchase belongs to your Apple or Google account. After changing device or reinstalling, use “Restore purchase” with the same account. Purchases on the App Store and on Google Play are separate and cannot be moved between the two. We cannot change this.

7. Right of withdrawal and refunds

If you are a Consumer in the EU/EEA, you may withdraw from your purchase within 14 days of the purchase without giving a reason (Directive 2011/83/EU).

• How: because Apple or Google took your payment, they refund it. Request it through Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com) or in Google Play (Account > Order history). You can also email us a clear statement that you withdraw, and we will help you with the store. A model withdrawal form is not required.
• When a refund is completed, access to that paid feature ends. The records you already made (for example characters or saved card images) are not deleted. Anything beyond the free limits can then be viewed but not added or edited.
• If a paid feature does not work as described, or the purchase went through but the feature did not unlock, email us. We will check and restore the feature or guide you through a refund. Your rights under the Digital Content Directive (EU) 2019/770 are not affected.

8. Your content

• You keep the copyright in your notes, nickname and other content. We acquire no rights to it.
• For a post you chose to publish to the feed, you allow us to store, copy and transmit it only as far as needed to run and show the feed. We will not use it for anything else, such as promotion, giving it to third parties or selling it, without separate consent.
• When you unpublish a post or delete the original, that permission ends and the post is removed from the feed.
• The book title and author are copied into the post when you publish, so later edits or deletion of the book do not change a post that is already public.

9. Quoting other people’s works

The text of a book belongs to its author or publisher, not to us or to you. Keeping a quote on your own device for personal use is generally fine. Publishing it to the feed is making it available to the public. When you publish, keep within what the law of your country allows as quotation (fair quotation, with the source named), and you are responsible for anything beyond that. If a rights holder asks us to remove a post, we remove or block it without delay and tell the author.

10. The public feed and moderation

• A post appears in the feed only if you choose to publish it. We never publish your posts ourselves.
• The feed shows the quote text, note, nickname and the book title and author. Photos, page numbers and email addresses are not shown. You can unpublish at any time.

Rules

Do not post or do any of the following:

• Content that breaks the law or is used to commit crimes
• Insults, threats or defamation of others
• Pornography, or violent or hateful content; discrimination or hate speech against people for sex, region, race, disability, religion or similar
• Content that infringes copyright, image rights or other rights
• Publishing or collecting other people’s personal data without consent
• Advertising, promotion or repeated spam; impersonating others or taking over accounts
• Disturbing the Service, reverse engineering the app, or gaining unauthorised access to the server
• Bulk collecting or copying feed posts by automated means

We have a zero-tolerance approach. Posts that break these rules can be removed or hidden without prior notice, and repeated or serious breaches can lead to restrictions on the account.

Reporting and blocking

• You can report a post or block a user in the Feed. A post you report, and posts by a user you block, immediately disappear for you. Manage blocked users in Settings > Blocked users.
• When a post gets 3 or more reports it is hidden automatically for everyone (an automated step). We then review it ourselves.
• We review reports and act within 24 hours: removing the post, blocking its visibility or restricting the author.
• Anyone, including people who are not users, can notify us of content they consider illegal by emailing sokurihj@gmail.com with the location of the post (the quote text and nickname are enough), why it is illegal, their name and email, and a statement that they believe in good faith that the information is accurate and complete. We handle notices diligently and without undue delay.

Decisions about your content or account

When we remove or restrict your content or your account for breaking these rules or the law, we tell you why (Art. 17 Digital Services Act): what was restricted, the facts and the legal or contractual ground, and how you can contest it, and whether an automated step (the automatic hiding at 3 reports) was involved. You can contest any decision by emailing us. We review it again without undue delay, and we undo the decision if your explanation is reasonable. You may also use any out-of-court dispute settlement body certified under the Digital Services Act and your right to go to court.

11. Your data and backups

• Your records are stored on your device by default. Deleting the app, resetting or losing the device, or a broken device can erase them.
• Photos stay on the device and are not backed up to our server. On Android, a photo is sent briefly to Google for text recognition and not stored (see the Privacy Notice). Reading time and finished-book and cat records are also not backed up to the server.
• If you sign in, your books (title, author, ISBN, cover address) and your quotes, notes and wordbook entries (text, page number, note) are backed up to our server so you can restore it on another device. This is an extra, not a guarantee of permanent storage.
• We recommend making a file backup regularly in Settings > Back up your records and keeping it somewhere else.
• We are not liable for data lost because a backup was not made, except for loss caused by our intent or negligence.

12. Interruptions and ending the Service

We may pause the Service for maintenance, system faults, faults or policy changes at external services (sign-in, storage, search), or events beyond our control. If we end the Service completely, we announce it at least 30 days ahead and explain how to back up your records. Features that run on your device without signing in keep working.

13. Ending your account

• You can delete your account at any time in Settings > Delete account.
• Deleting it immediately and permanently removes your account data, backups, feed posts and likes, reports and blocks from our server.
• Records on your device are not deleted by this. Delete the app to remove them.
• Paid features you bought stay yours: they belong to your Apple or Google account, so “Restore purchase” works even after deletion or while signed out.
• If you break the rules in Section 10 we may remove content, restrict the feed or suspend the account. Where the breach is not serious and not urgent, we give 30 days’ notice and a chance to correct it. You can contest a decision as described in Section 10.

14. External services

The app uses outside services, and we do not send them anything that identifies you: Google and Apple (sign-in), Apple App Store and Google Play (payment), Supabase (server and sign-in), Open Library, Google Books, the National Diet Library of Japan, Kakao and the National Library of Korea (book information), Google Cloud Vision (Android text recognition), and the National Institute of Korean Language (Korean word definitions). Details are in the Privacy Notice. If one of these services fails or changes, the related feature may be limited, and we will tell you or offer an alternative. We do not guarantee that book information or definitions from outside services are accurate.

15. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. We announce changes in the app or on this page at least 7 days before they apply, and at least 30 days before if they are to your disadvantage, with the date and reason. If a change to your disadvantage is material, you may end your use before it applies and, if you keep using the app after the date, we treat it as agreement only where the law allows that. A change never takes away a paid feature you already bought.

16. Liability

• We are not liable for being unable to provide the Service because of events beyond our control, such as natural disasters, network outages or failures of outside services.
• We are not responsible for the accuracy of what other users post, and we are not obliged to step into disputes between users, but we act on reports as described in Section 10.
• Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law: for death or personal injury, for intent, fraud or gross negligence, or your mandatory statutory consumer rights.

17. Privacy

We protect your personal data under the law. What we collect, why, for how long, and your rights are explained in the Privacy Notice.

18. Governing law, courts and dispute resolution

• These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea. This does not take away the protection of the mandatory consumer rules of the country where you live if you are a Consumer.
• If you are a Consumer in the EU/EEA, you may bring proceedings in the courts of your country of residence, and we can bring proceedings against you only there.
• For other users, disputes are heard by the competent court under Korean civil procedure law.
• We try in good faith to settle any problem first. Please write to sokurihj@gmail.com.
• Consumers in the EU can also use the European Commission’s online dispute resolution information at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. In Korea, you can contact the Korea Consumer Agency (1372).

19. If part of these terms is invalid

If a provision is found invalid or unenforceable, the rest stays in force.

20. Contact

Questions about these terms, reports about posts, or any other problem: sokurihj@gmail.com. We reply without undue delay.

Revision history

• October 25, 2026 — First English version. It follows the Korean terms (effective September 6, 2026, revised October 13, 2026).
• November 7, 2026 — Added the Premium cat to the paid features (At a glance, Section 5). People who already bought get it at no extra cost.