Final answer:
Creative Commons licenses are a suite of copyright licenses that allow creators to specify the rights they reserve and waive, ranging from attribution requirements to restrictions on commercial use and derivative works.
Step-by-step explanation:
Creative Commons licenses are a type of public copyright license that enables creators to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. There are several types of Creative Commons licenses, each denoted by an abbreviation that encapsulates the permissions and restrictions associated with the work. For example, the CC BY license requires attributions to the original creator, CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license requires any derivative works to carry the same license, while CC BY-NC (Attribution NonCommercial) license restricts the work's use for commercial purposes. Licenses like the CC BY-ND (Attribution-NoDerivs) do not allow any derivative works.
Additionally, some works may be released under a Public Domain license which means they are free for use without any restrictions.