Cult Awareness and Information Centre

The Cult Awareness and Information Centre is an organization based in Brisbane, Australia that provides resources and information on groups they identify as cults and other controversial groups. The organization was founded by Jan Groenveld, an exit counselor with a background in psychology.

History
The Cult Awareness and Information Centre was founded in 1990, by Jan Groenveld, based in Brisbane, Australia. The Cult Awareness and Information Centre website was launched in 1991.

Due to Groenveld's reputation, the organization soon became listed as a resource in secondary publications on the subject matter. Cult Awareness and Information Centre was listed along with Groenveld, as a resource in Marlene Winell's book, Leaving the Fold. In September 1993, the Cult Awareness and Information Centre organized a conference on "cult-busting" at Queensland University.

Cited by contemporary works
The Cult Awareness and Information Centre continues to be listed as a resource by authors of associated works, including Carter's Amway Motivational Organizations in 1999, Evert, Bundschuh and Finley in 2001, Kaplan's Millennial Violence, in 2002, Snow's Deadly Cults: The Crimes of True Believers, in 2003, and Fish's Not Taught!, in 2006. In June 2006, Australia's The Courier Mail cited the Cult Awareness and Information Centre on the cult "The Family" that was at the time under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Cult Awareness and Information Centre was also cited as a resource in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service report: "Doomsday Religious Movements".

Cease and desist from Landmark Education
In November 2006, the American company Landmark Education sent the Cult Awareness and Information Centre a Cease and desist letter, requesting that it stop hosting a Pièces à Conviction documentary on the company's actions in France, entitled:  Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus. Similar letters had been sent to Google Video, Youtube, and Internet Archive, and the story was picked up worldwide by the Reuters newsservice. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Cult Awareness and Information Centre had continued to host the documentary while Landmark Education's copyright campaign was ongoing in the United States. Landmark Education later dropped its Copyright subpoenas against Google and an anonymous poster of the video. Landmark had previously sought subpoenas in Federal court in California, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In 2007, the Cult Awareness and Information Centre allowed Landmark Education to post a "Reply to Posting of France TV3 Program", on their Web site, in a subsection of their page on the documentary, which included links to Landmark Education's Web site.