Sec. 0.465  Request for copies of materials which are available, or made 
          available, for public inspection.

    (a) The Commission awards a contract to a commercial duplication 
firm to make copies of Commission records and offer them for sale to the 
public. In addition to the charge for copying, the contractor may charge 
a search fee for extracting the requested documents from the 
Commission's files.

    Note: The name, address, telephone number, and schedule of fees for 
the current duplication contractor are published annually at the time of 
contract award or renewal in a Public Notice. This information may be 
obtained from the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, Consumer 
Assistance and Small Business Division, Telephone (202) 632-7000.

    (b) The Commission awards a contract to a commercial firm to 
transcribe Commission proceedings in which a verbatim record is kept and 
to

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offer copies of the transcript for sale to the public. Except as 
authorized by the Commission, the firm is required to retain the 
capacity to furnish copies of the transcript for a period of 5 years, 
and may retain that capacity for a longer period, even though another 
firm is currently transcribing Commission proceedings. Requests for 
copies of the transcript of the current proceedings should be directed 
to the current contractor. Requests for transcripts of older proceedings 
will be forwarded by the Commission to the firm which made the 
transcript in question; and the names of contracting firms for past 
years will be furnished upon request.

    Note: The name, address, telephone number, and schedule of fees for 
the current transcription contractor are published annually at the time 
of contract award or renewal in a Public Notice. This information may be 
obtained from the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, Consumer 
Assistance and Small Business Division, Telephone (202) 632-7000.

    (c)(1) Contractual arrangements which have been entered into with 
commercial firms, as described in this section, do not in any way limit 
the right of the public to inspect Commission records or to extract 
therefrom whatever information may be desired. Coin-operated copy 
machines are available for use by the public in various reference rooms 
for the purpose of duplicating records available at those locations. In 
addition, any person may make photocopies of Commission records with his 
or her own equipment at locations where those records may be inspected. 
Prior approval for such arrangements, which must be obtained from the 
Operations Support Division, Office of Managing Director, is subject to 
the availabilty of adequate space and facilities to accommodate the 
user's equipment.
    (2) The Commission has reserved the right to make copies of its 
records for its own use or for the use of other agencies of the U.S. 
Government. When it serves the regulatory or financial interests of the 
U.S. Government, the Commission will make and furnish copies of its 
records free of charge. In other circumstances, however, if it should be 
necessary for the Commission to make and furnish copies of its records 
for the use of others, the fee for this service shall be 17 cents per 
page. For copies prepared with other media, such as computer tapes, 
microfiche or videotape, the charge will be the actual direct cost 
including operator time. Requests for copying should be accompanied by a 
statement specifying the maximum copying fee the person making the 
request is prepared to pay. If the Commission estimates that copying 
charges are likely to exceed $25 or the amount which the requester has 
indicated that he/she is prepared to pay, then it shall notify the 
requester of the estimated amount of fees. Such a notice shall offer the 
requester the opportunity to confer with Commission personnel with the 
object of revising or clarifying the request.

    Note: The criterion considered in acting on a waiver request is 
whether ``waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest 
because furnishing the information can be considered as primarily 
benefiting the general public.'' 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(4)(A). The following 
factors are relevant in applying that criterion: the number of persons 
to be benefited, the significance of the benefit, the private interest 
of the requester which the release may further, the usefulness of the 
materials to be released to the general public and the likelihood that a 
tangible public benefit will be realized. (See Attorney General's 1974 
FOI Amdts. Memorandum, at 15.)

    (3) Requests for copies by representatives of foreign governments or 
persons residing in foreign countries shall be submitted to the General 
Counsel and will be reviewed by the General Counsel under criteria 
established by the Department of Commerce for controlling the export of 
technical data.
    (4) Certified Documents. Copies of documents which are available or 
made available, for inspection under Secs. 0.451 through 0.465, will be 
prepared and certified, under seal, by the Secretary, or for documents 
located in the Commission's Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Office by his 
deputy. Requests shall be in writing, specifying the exact documents, 
the number of copies desired, and the date on which they will be 
required. The request shall allow a reasonable time for the preparation 
and certification of copies. The fee for preparing copies shall be the 
same as that

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charged by the Commission as described in Sec. 0.465(c)(2). The fee for 
certification shall be $10 for each document.
    (d)(1) Copies of computer maintained data bases produced by the 
Commission may be obtained from the National Technical Information 
Service (NTIS), Department of Commerce, in the form of machine-readable 
media, e.g., magnetic tapes, microfiche, or diskettes. These materials 
are not available to the general public directly from the Commission. 
Data bases produced on magnetic tape and microfiche by the Commission 
are listed in two catalogs which may be obtained from NTIS. Extracts 
from these catalogs pertaining to the Commission are available without 
charge from the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, Consumer 
Assistance and Small Business Division. The catalogs describe the data 
base, state the estimated fee for providing it, and specify ordering 
information. Periodic updates to computer maintained data bases, as they 
occur, will not be furnished in machine-readable form.

    Note: The Commission awards a contract to provide the public with 
direct electronic access to a portion of the non-Government Master 
Frequency File data base released for access and residing on the 
contractor's computer system. The name, address, telephone number, and 
schedule of fees for the current contractor are published annually at 
the time of contract award or renewal in a Public notice. This 
information may be obtained from the Office of Congressional and Public 
Affairs, Consumer Assistance and Small Business Division, Telephone 
(202) 632-7000.

    (2) Copies of computer generated data stored as paper printouts or 
on microfiche may also be obtained from the Commission's duplicating 
contractor (see paragraph (a) of this section).
    (3) Copies of computer source programs and associated documentation 
produced by the Commission shall be obtained through the National 
Technical Information Service (NTIS), Department of Commerce. NTIS will 
forward each request to the Commission. If it can be determined that the 
requested program is available, the Commission will distribute the 
current edition to the requester. NTIS will act as billing agent for the 
Commission. NTIS will bill the requester for the direct costs of 
production plus their overhead based on billing information provided by 
the Commission. Estimates of the total cost may be obtained from NTIS in 
advance. NTIS will not stock Commission source programs and 
documentation, nor will they maintain a catalog of Commission computer 
programs that may be available due to the large volume of programs and 
the frequency with which they are revised. Requests shall be limited to 
computer source programs and associated documentation in existence when 
the request is submitted; requests which require the Commission to 
produce unique computer programs, data bases and documentation, which 
are not part of its inventory at the time of the request, will not be 
honored. Likewise, periodic updates of these materials, as they occur, 
will not be furnished.
    (4) The Commission reserves the right to distribute copies of its 
computer source programs and data bases to other entities as it sees 
fit, and when it serves the regulatory interests of the U.S. Government 
or the Commission, as determined by the Managing Director.
    (e) This section has no application to printed publications, which 
may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents or private firms 
(see Secs. 0.411 through 0.420). Nor does it apply to application forms 
or information bulletins, which are prepared for the use and information 
of the public and are available upon request (see Secs. 0.421 and 
0.423).
    (f) Anyone requesting copies of documents pursuant to this section 
may select either the Commission or the contractor to fulfill the 
request. If a request goes directly to the contractor, the requester 
will be charged by the contractor pursuant to the price list set forth 
in the latest contract. If a request goes directly to the Commission, it 
shall be sent to the Office of the Managing Director for appropriate 
processing according to the fee standards established under the FOIA.


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(Secs. 4, 303, 307, 48 Stat., as amended, 1066, 1082, 1083; 47 U.S.C. 
154, 303, 397; 47 CFR 0.231(d))
[32 1997 FR 10573 , July 19, 1967, as amended at  41 FR 51610 , Nov. 23, 1976; 
 45 FR 85028 , Dec. 24, 1980;  49 FR 13368 , Apr. 4, 1984;  51 FR 34982 , Oct. 
1, 1986;  52 FR 36774 , Oct. 1, 1987;  53 FR 39093 , Oct. 5, 1988]