Engineering and architecture

Public subsurface databases vs licensing your boring logs: what to weigh

By SourceX Editorial · Updated October 9, 2026

Short answer

Whether to share boring log data with a public database, license it privately or keep it turns on four questions: who controls each log under its contract, whether the log is already public, how much control you give up, and what preparation costs. A practical split: contribute logs that are already public, license logs you control, and keep the rest.

Key takeaways

Sort logs by rights first: already public, firm-controlled, client-confidential and excluded.
Public contribution cannot be undone, while a license is time-limited and scoped to a permitted use.
Logs that are already public carry less licensing value, because buyers can obtain them elsewhere.
Both sharing routes need location checks, client-name removal and a statement limiting reliance.
Keeping logs is a sound choice when rights are unclear or the data supports competitive work.

Three options for a boring-log archive#

A geotechnical firm has three options for its boring-log archive: contribute logs to a public subsurface database, license them privately for a defined use, or keep them for internal work. The options are not exclusive, and most firms end up using more than one.

Public databases include those run by state geological surveys, transportation departments, research consortia and industry platforms that collect logs from many firms. A private license grants a buyer, such as an AI developer, the right to use a defined set of logs for a stated purpose and term, while the firm keeps ownership. Keeping means the logs stay internal for proposals, desktop studies and repeat work.

Decision table: contribute, license or keep#

The decision table compares the three options on the factors that usually settle the question. Read across a row to see what each choice gives up.

Decision table: contribute, license or keep
Factor	Public contribution	Private license	Keep
Rights needed	Right to publish without restriction	Right to license for the stated use	None beyond existing rights
Client consent	Needed unless logs are already public and contracts allow	Needed where contracts restrict use	Not needed
Payment	Usually none	License fee set by negotiation	None directly
Control after release	Lost; anyone may use the data	Set by permitted use, term and deletion terms	Full
Effort	Format conversion and quality checks	Rights review, preparation and documentation	Storage and upkeep
Reliance exposure	Third parties may rely on old logs	Addressed in license terms	Limited to existing clients
Competitive effect	Competitors gain the same data	Restricted by license terms	Advantage retained
Reversibility	Not reversible	Ends at term, subject to license terms	Fully reversible

Rights come first: who controls each log#

Rights decide which option is even available for a given log. Standard engineering agreements give the engineer a strong starting position: EJCDC E-500 language states that the engineer retains an ownership and property interest in its documents, including copyright and the right of reuse, and grants the owner a limited license to use them on the project and for related uses.

Confidentiality and owner-drafted terms often narrow that position. Many private development contracts define site data as the client's confidential information, while logs prepared for public agencies often already sit in bid documents or agency files. Sort the archive into four groups before weighing options.

Already public: logs in bid documents, agency filings or published reports.
Firm-controlled: logs the firm owns with no confidentiality restriction on reuse.
Client-confidential: logs the contract treats as the client's confidential information.
Excluded: litigation-support projects, sensitive facilities and sites under a hold.

What public contribution gives and takes#

Public contribution gives the profession better regional subsurface knowledge and gives the firm visibility as a contributor, and on some platforms access to logs that others have contributed. It suits logs that are already public and logs from projects where no client restriction applies.

The trade-off is permanence. Once logs are published, anyone can use them, including competitors bidding nearby work and developers building tools, and the firm cannot recall them. Third parties may also rely on old logs for new decisions, so attach a clear statement of each log's original purpose, date and limitations, and check the platform's terms on liability.

Contribution also takes work. Most platforms expect a defined format, consistent units and located boreholes, and some review submissions before publishing them, so budget staff time for conversion and checking even though no payment follows.

What a private license gives and takes#

A private license gives the firm payment, a defined permitted use, a term and deletion obligations, while the firm keeps ownership of the logs. It suits firm-controlled logs, and client logs where consent can be obtained, and it requires more preparation than a public upload.

Value depends on what makes the archive hard to replace. The SourceX Enterprise Data Value Framework weighs drivers such as uniqueness, domain expertise, human-generated signal, recency, data cleanliness and rights, and treats reproducibility as reducing value. Logs that are already public carry less licensing value for exactly that reason: a buyer can obtain them elsewhere.

Preparation usually means digitizing logs into structured records, aligning units and coordinate systems, removing client names and personal details, and documenting provenance. That effort also makes the archive more useful internally, whichever option the firm chooses.

A pre-sharing checklist applies whichever route a log takes, because public contribution and private licensing both expose the same weaknesses: unclear rights, imprecise locations and identifying details. Run every candidate log through the same checks and record the result against its project number.

Confirm which of the four rights groups the log belongs to, and record the contract that decides it.
Check that coordinates, datum and ground elevation are recorded and plausible.
Remove client names, personal details and any notes that identify a confidential project.
Attach the log's original purpose, date and limitations.
Confirm the log has not been superseded by a corrected version.
Note who approved the release and on what basis.

Illustrative: a geotechnical firm splits its archive three ways#

Illustrative: a fictional geotechnical firm with a long regional history holds recent logs in OpenGround and older ones as scanned PDFs. Its clients include a state transportation department, school districts and private developers.

The firm sorts the archive by rights. Logs from transportation projects already appear in public bid documents, so the firm contributes them to the state geological survey's database with a statement of their original purpose. Logs from private developments where the firm's contracts reserve ownership and reuse are assessed for a private license, with consent requested where contracts require it. Litigation-support projects and logs from sensitive facilities stay internal.

The result is one archive with three documented treatments, recorded against each project number, so the firm can answer any later question about where a given log went and why.

How SourceX approaches boring-log archives#

SourceX approaches a boring-log archive through the SourceX five-step transaction: Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery. The fit check uses metadata such as record types, regions, years and formats, the Rights step applies the four-group sort, and Preparation removes client names and personal details before anything is shared.

The firm approves every step, and each licensed package is documented in a SourceX Evidence Packet covering provenance, licensing rights, permitted use, the privacy record and release authorization. Large archives can stay in the firm's own storage for delivery.

Frequently asked questions

Does contributing logs publicly prevent licensing them later?

Not necessarily as a legal matter, but it reduces their licensing value, because a buyer can obtain the same logs from the public source, and it rules out any exclusive license for them. Decide which logs to license before contributing an archive, not after.

Do we need client consent to contribute logs from public projects?

Often not, if the logs are already part of the public record, but check the contract first. Some agency contracts include their own confidentiality or data terms, and logs that never left your files may not be public even when the client is a public body.

Is removing the client's name enough to share a log?

Rarely. A log's coordinates and project details can identify the site and its owner through public property records. Name removal is part of preparation, not a substitute for having the right to share the log in the first place.

Could we be liable if someone relies on a contributed log?

There is some exposure, because third parties may use old logs for decisions the original investigation was not designed to support. Include a statement of purpose, date and limitations, review the platform's terms, and ask your professional liability insurer and counsel for guidance.

What format do public databases and buyers expect?

Many accept standard exchange formats such as AGS or DIGGS, or their own templates, and buyers generally prefer structured records to scanned PDFs. Converting logs to a structured format once serves both routes as well as internal reuse.

Sources

EJCDC E-500 Owner-Engineer agreement language (2014 edition excerpt) states that all Documents are instruments of service and the Engineer retains an ownership and property interest therein, including the copyright and the right of reuse at the Engineer's discretion, whether or not the Project is completed. Source
EJCDC E-500 excerpts grant the Owner a limited license to use the Documents on the Project, extensions of the Project, and for related uses of the Owner, subject to the Engineer's receipt of full payment, and make reuse for other purposes without the Engineer's written verification or adaptation at the Owner's sole risk with an Owner indemnity. Source

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