Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-12562604-20180326090941/@comment-1757994-20180326180901

It sounds like you're read the Creative Commons website. It discusses the differences between copyright and license.

To summarize, copyright and license are different. The creator retains the copyright, but if he publishes under a Create Commons license, he grants everyone the ability to use his creation in perpetuity. If someone adds or changes anything, they are the copyright holders of the additions/changes, but are required to license the additions/changes under the same license.

BTW, "elves" are public domain, since they've existed in European folklore for thousands of years.