Can NBMG geologic maps with mixed licence notices be used as external training data?

GEMS Prize Challenge
1

Hi all. The rules allow external data “if we hold a licence permitting use in the challenge and sharing with the sponsor”. I’d like to check whether the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG) fault mapping meets that bar, because NBMG’s licence statements contradict each other.

The resources in question

  1. NBMG 1:24,000 quadrangle geologic maps inside GeoDAWN: the PDFs and GIS packages from pubs.nbmg.unr.edu and data.nbmg.unr.edu, many of them listed in the USGS NGMDB catalogue.
  2. NBMG GIS conversions of older USGS maps, for example OF1979-1145z.zip, NBMG’s GIS version of USGS OFR 79-1145. Others include Granite Mountain, Basalt, Frenchie Creek, Antler Peak and Middlegate.
  3. The 2013 NBMG 1:24k fault-line compilation served at gisweb.unr.edu (Geology/NBMG_Geology).

Why the licence is unclear

  • NBMG’s site-wide copyright page (nbmg.unr.edu/Copyright.html) says the work is under CC BY 4.0. The same page says “All Rights Reserved” and asks users to follow any notices that come with the data.
  • The individual products carry different notices:
    • The quadrangle PDFs and product pages say “© University of Nevada, Reno. All Rights Reserved.”
    • The publication store’s terms allow copying “solely for your own non-commercial use”.
    • The metadata in the GIS conversions (item 2) says “Do not reproduce for commercial purposes”. This applies even though the underlying maps are USGS public-domain works.
    • The 2013 fault service (item 3) has no licence at all, only copyrightText: “NBMG”.
  • We can’t tell whether the site-wide CC BY 4.0 grant overrides these product notices. We also can’t tell whether a prize competition counts as “commercial”, or whether handing derived labels to DOE/NLR on request counts as “reproduction”.

We’ve emailed NBMG and haven’t heard back yet.

Questions

  1. Do the organisers consider these NBMG products acceptable for training, given the CC BY 4.0 site statement? Or should teams treat them as off-limits unless NBMG gives written permission?
  2. NBMG’s Quaternary faults and 1:500k geology layers on its ArcGIS Hub portal are marked CC BY 4.0 in the portal’s own metadata. Can we treat those as clearly allowed?
  3. If an NBMG GIS package is restricted but the USGS original is public domain, is it acceptable to digitise the faults ourselves from the USGS-published plate?

Thanks!