[Osmf-talk] Can we untick the Public domain checkbox from our initial choice done during OSM sign up?

[Paul Norman]

On 2019-10-01 1:28 a.m., severin.menard via osmf-talk wrote:
> My question is: can I now edit this option of the contributor 
> agreement and untick this checkbox, considering it would be totally 
> harmless for OSM as PD not being the current license for OSM? Or 
> everyone in my case unfortunately needs to create a new OSM account?


The PD checkbox doesn't mean that your data could be relicensed under 
PD. Quoting from the OSMF at the time 
(https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2013/10/15/the-pd-checkbox/),

> Unluckily what ticking the box would actually imply was, and continues 
> to be, rather unclear; interpretations range from participating in an 
> informal survey to actually giving permission to use the data on PD 
> (or similar) terms. On top of that, at least for some time, there was 
> a design issue with the specific page that potentially led to new 
> contributors selecting the option inadvertently. Not to mention that 
> the explanatory text changed multiple times in different locations.

and

> it was made very clear during the license change process that that 
> ticking the PD box was in the form of a survey.


So there's no need to uncheck the box, as it has no legal significance.