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Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
i believe they can be released into the public domain specifically. even if they're not in the PD, you usually have the explicit right to copy them, which is yet another statute to factor in.
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Any author can explicitly release a work to the public domain, but that's entirely different from a Creative Commons licence, which is a licence to copy a work within certainly very rigidly-defined terms.
You can do anything you want with a work in a public domain - modify it, create derivative works, sell it at a profit. All these acts are specifically prohibited for works released under a creative commons licence. A work released under a CC licence is fully protected by copyright laws, but the author has said "you can copy it under these specific circumstances", which are laid out in the licence terms.