Terms of Service

1. About These Terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) apply to your use of Lodestone (“the App”), an offline-first geological atlas for Android developed by Day of Flight Studios (“we,” “us,” or “our”), and to the data service and website at lodestone-explorer.com.

By installing or using the App, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the App. Our Privacy Policy explains how the App handles information.

Your legal rights. Nothing in these Terms takes away rights you have under laws that cannot be changed by contract, such as consumer protection laws where you live. Where these Terms conflict with those laws, those laws apply.

2. Permitted Use & License

Subject to these Terms, we give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use Lodestone on Android devices you own or control, for personal, educational, research, and recreational purposes.

You agree not to:

• Decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the App, except where applicable law expressly permits it regardless of this restriction;
• Copy, sell, or redistribute the App itself, or offer it to others as a hosted service;
• Use automated tools to download from data.lodestone-explorer.com repeatedly or in bulk, or otherwise access our data service in a way that places unreasonable load on it or interferes with other users;
• Interfere with, bypass, or disable the App’s security or download-verification features, or try to gain unauthorized access to our systems;
• Use the App to break the law, including entering land without permission or collecting minerals, fossils, or artifacts without authorization.

Lodestone includes open-source components, and much of its data comes from public sources (Section 6). Your rights to those components and data are governed by their own licenses and terms, and these Terms do not restrict them.

3. Geological Data Accuracy

In particular:

• Locations are approximate. Mapped fault traces, boundaries, and occurrence locations can be off by a large distance, and on the ground they may be hidden by soil, vegetation, or human activity.
• An occurrence is not a deposit or a claim. A mineral occurrence record means a mineral was reported at or near a location at some point. It does not show that a deposit is economic, that a site is accessible, or that collecting is permitted.
• Data may contain errors. Source datasets come from different agencies and eras and can contain outdated names, classification differences, and mistakes.
• Not for engineering, investment, or legal decisions. Lodestone is a reference and educational tool. Do not use it as the basis for construction, foundation or slope design, hazard assessment, environmental work, mining or investment decisions, or boundary determinations. Consult a qualified professional, such as a licensed geologist or geotechnical engineer, and carry out a proper site investigation.

4. Land Access & Mineral Rights

• A map feature is not permission. Showing an outcrop, occurrence, mine, road, or trail does not mean the location is public or open to you. You are responsible for finding out who owns or manages the land and whether you may enter it.
• Permits and rules. Public lands, such as those managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, state trust land agencies, and their equivalents elsewhere, have their own rules on access, vehicles, and collecting. Tribal lands are under tribal jurisdiction. Obtain any required permits and landowner permission before you go.
• Collecting is regulated. Digging, prospecting, and collecting minerals, fossils, or artifacts are restricted by law in many places, and collecting without authorization can be a civil or criminal offense. Lodestone does not show active mining claims, mineral ownership, or land status.

5. Field Safety

Fieldwork has real risks, and you are responsible for your own safety decisions in the field.

• Terrain hazards. Geological sites can involve cliffs, loose rock, rockfall, unstable ground, flash-flood channels, extreme weather, and wildlife.
• Stay out of abandoned mines. Never enter abandoned mines, shafts, or adits. They can hold dangerous air, hidden vertical drops, and unstable rock, and they may look safe when they are not. Mine symbols and occurrence records in Lodestone are not invitations to visit.
• Do not rely on a phone alone. Phones can fail from a dead battery, cold, water, damage, poor GPS reception, or software problems. Do not make hazardous field decisions based only on a digital map. Carry a paper map and compass, and appropriate safety and communication equipment, when you go into remote terrain.

6. Third-Party Data & Services

Lodestone uses data and services produced by others, including:

• Mineral occurrence records from the U.S. Geological Survey (Mineral Resources Data System and USMIN);
• Quaternary fault data included with the App;
• Coal deposit areas and oil and gas fields published by Utah state agencies (the Utah Geological Survey and the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining) and loaded through ArcGIS Online;
• The topographic basemap from USGS The National Map.

We do not create or independently verify these datasets, and we do not control the third-party services that provide them. They are used under their public-domain status or applicable licenses. Sources are credited in the App under Settings > Data sources. Third-party services may change, limit, or stop providing their data at any time, which can affect parts of the App.

7. Intellectual Property

The Lodestone software, its design, and its original text and graphics are owned by the developer, Day of Flight Studios, and are protected by intellectual property laws. These Terms give you a license to use the App. They do not transfer ownership.

Public-domain and openly licensed data and open-source components remain under their own terms. Nothing in these Terms claims ownership of public survey data or limits your rights to it.

8. Availability & Updates

Once its database is downloaded, Lodestone’s core features work offline. The basemap and the online Utah layers need an internet connection, except for basemap areas already cached on your device. Performance depends on your device’s storage, hardware, and Android version.

We may update, change, suspend, or discontinue the App, its datasets, or the data service. We are not obliged to provide updates, data revisions, or support for any particular device, except where the law requires it.

9. Disclaimer of Warranties

To the extent permitted by applicable law, Lodestone and all data and content in it are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. This includes, to the extent permitted, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not promise that the App or its data will be accurate, complete, uninterrupted, or error-free.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranties to be excluded. If you live in one of them, some of these exclusions may not apply to you, and you keep any warranties and rights that the law gives you.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by applicable law, Day of Flight Studios and the people who develop Lodestone will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use the App or your reliance on its data.

You are responsible for how you use the information in the App, including decisions you make about entering land, collecting, and your activities in the field.

What this section does not limit. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. Depending on where you live, that may include liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for gross negligence or willful misconduct, as well as your statutory consumer rights.

11. Suspension & Termination

You can stop using Lodestone at any time by uninstalling it, which also deletes its downloaded data from your device.

If you seriously or repeatedly breach these Terms, we may end your license to use the App. We may also block or limit access to the data service from sources that overload it, misuse it, or try to access it without authorization. Where the law requires notice or another process before we take these steps, we will follow it.

Sections 3 to 7, 9, 10, and 12 continue to apply after these Terms end.

12. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Utah, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. If you use Lodestone as a consumer, this choice of law does not take away the protection of mandatory laws of the country, state, or province where you live, and you may be able to bring a claim in the courts where you live as that law allows.

Informal resolution first. If you have a concern or dispute about Lodestone, please contact us first at [email protected]. Most issues can be resolved quickly this way. Contacting us first is encouraged, not required, and does not limit any rights you have.

No mandatory arbitration or class-action waiver. These Terms do not require arbitration and do not waive your right to take part in a class or representative action. Any dispute that is not resolved informally may be brought in a court with jurisdiction under applicable law.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms, for example to reflect changes to the App or the law. We will publish the updated Terms at this address with a new effective date. For significant changes, we will also give reasonable notice, such as in the App or its release notes, before they take effect, and will ask for your agreement where the law requires it.

If you do not agree to updated Terms, you can stop using the App and uninstall it. Where the law allows, continuing to use the App after updated Terms take effect means you accept them.

14. Contact

For questions about these Terms:

• Day of Flight Studios
• Email: [email protected]