I am writing an article on the [[Kabbalah Center]], the for-profit religious group led by former insurance agent Feivel Gruberger, who now claims to be "Rabbi Philip Berg".

There is a lengthy and carefully referenced article about him and his work called ''The Truth about the Kabbalah Centre'' which I got a photocopy of. It was published by the ''Task Force on Cults and Missionaries'', Los Angeles, CA in 1995. The references and facts stated therein match the claims in other articles, from newspapers. (Berg and hs group have been investiagted by journalists from the US and Israel; he is accused of running a cult and brainwashing some of his disciples, as well as scamming them out of large amounst of money, and endangering their health.)

A few years ago I wrote an article for a local newspaper on this issue, and tried to get permission to print the article from the ''Task Force on Cults and Missionaries''. Despite letters and phone calls, I was unable to track down anyone who held copyright to it; the people who sent me the article from LA told me that I was free to publish the entire article, or parts therein, and that they could not provide me with copyright information or the name of the author. They allow others to post the entire article on their website, notably Rick Ross, an anti-cult educator.

I suspect that the author or authors of this article want to avoid being sued, and wish that this material be distributed.

I notice that our article on [[Public domain]] states that "A copyright holder can explicitly disclaim any proprietary interest in the work, effectively granting it to the public domain, by providing a licence to this effect. A suitable licence will grant permission for all of the acts which are restricted by copyright law."

What about cases when we can no longer track down the copyright holder, or they wish not to be found, and encourage distribution of their work? At what point can we reasonably presume that such work enters the public domain?

Robert (RK)

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