Which Creative Commons license is most like public domain?
CC Zero is the CC license most like the public domain. It was just launched this weekend. Maybe Flickr will incorporate it soon. Until then, you can mark it as Attribution, which is the least-restrictive CC license that flickr offers.
Flickr has a very limited selection of Creative Commons licenses. The one whose terms most closely resemble public domain is “Attribution Creative Commons” (It has the fewest restrictions). However, you implied that you are not the author of the images in question, and you can’t really apply a creative commons license to an image of which you are not the author. So I recommend you use “None”, but in the description of each image, state that it is in the public domain. (Or that you believe it to be in the public domain).
I’d use the least restrictive license possible (“Attribution Creative Commons” apparently), and then note the PD status in text/tags. The reason for that is the search function. When searching for photos that are available to use under various less-restrictive license you want the PD images to show up. If you choose “none” they will be listed as “all rights reserved” (perhaps even more important) won’t show up in any searches for CC-licensed images.
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