[WikiEN-l] When can an article be considered public domain?

Fri Aug 13 19:19:10 UTC 2004

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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