FCC's staff, and should not be relied on by the public because in some instances the data bases and the lists may not agree with the primary sources of information (e.g., official license documents, international notifications, actual applications, and the like). Action by the public, such as the filing of applications, should be based on the primary sources of information and not on the data bases or lists. If there are discrepancies between the primary sources of information and the data bases or lists, the former control.

(f) The United States and its officers, agents, and employees shall not be responsible or liable for any loss, expense, or damage arising from or incident to the use of either the data bases or the lists by the public.

[45 FR 41151, June 18, 1980, as amended at 53 FR 4412, Feb. 16, 1988]

PUBLIC INFORMATION AND INSPECTION OF RECORDS

$0.441 General.

Any person desiring to obtain information may do so by writing or coming in person to any of the Commission's offices. A broader range of information and more comprehensive information facilities are available at the Commission's main office in Washington, D.C., however, and inquiries of a general nature should ordinarily be submitted to that office.

[32 FR 10573, July 19, 1967]

$0.442 Disclosure to other Federal government agencies of information submitted to the Commission in confidence.

(a) The disclosure of records to other federal government agencies is generally governed by 44 U.S.C. 3512 and 3508(a) rather than the Freedom of Information Act. The acceptance of materials in confidence under §0.457 or $0.459 does not provide assurance

against their disclosure to other agencies.

(b) Information submitted to the Commission in confidence pursuant to §0.457(c) (2) and (3), (d) and (g) or §0.459 will be disclosed to other agencies of the federal government upon request: Provided (1) Specific Commission assurances against such disclosure have not

been given, (2) the other agency has established a legitimate need for the information, (3) disclosure is made subject to the provisions of 44 U.S.C. 3508(a), and (4) disclosure is not prohibited by the Privacy Act or other provisions of law.

(c) The Commission's staff may give assurances against disclosure of information to other federal agencies only with the prior written approval of the General Counsel. In no event will assurance against disclosure to other agencies be given in advance of submission of the information to the Commission if submission is required by statute or by the provisions of this chapter; but the notice provisions of paragraph (d) of this section will apply to such information.

(d)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (d)(2) of this section a party who furnished records to the Commission in confidence will be notified at the time that the request for disclosure is submitted and will be afforded 10 days in which to oppose disclosure.

(2) If the agency requesting the records states to the satisfaction of the Commission that notice to the party who furnished the records to the Commission will interfere unduly with its law enforcement activities and further states that it will notify that party of the Commission's disclosure once the potential for such interference is eliminated, the Commission will not give notice of disclosure.

(3) If notice is given to the party who furnished the records to the Commission in confidence and disclosure is not opposed, the staff is authorized to make the records available to the agency which requested them.

(4) If disclosure is opposed and the Commission decides to make the records available to the other agency, the party who furnished the records to the Commission will be afforded ten (10) working days from the date of the ruling in which to move for a judicial stay of the Commission's action. If he does not move for stay within this period, the records will be disclosed.

(e) Nothing in this section is intended to govern disclosure of information to Congress.

[44 FR 55573, Sept. 27, 1979; 44 FR 57096, Oct. 4, 1979]

$0.443 General information office.

The Press and News Media Division is located at 1919 M Street NW., Washington, D.C. Here the public may obtain copies of public notices of Commission actions, formal documents adopted by the Commission and other public releases as they are issued. Back issues of public releases are available for inspection in this office. Copies of fact sheets which answer general questions about the Commission may be obtained from this office.

[36 FR 15121, Aug. 13, 1971, as amended at 44 FR 12425, Mar. 7, 1979; 44 FR 70471, Dec. 7, 1979]

$0.445 Publication, availability and

use of opinions, orders, policy statements, interpretations, administrative manuals, and staff instructions. (a) Adjudicatory opinions and orders of the Commission, or its staff acting on delegated authority, are mailed to the parties, and as part of the record, are available for inspection in accordance with §0.453 and §0.455.

(b) Texts adopted by the Commission or a member of its staff on delegated authority and made available to the public through the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs are published in the FCC Record. Older materials of this nature are available in the FCC Reports. In the event that such older materials are not published in the FCC Reports, reference should be made to the FEDERAL REGISTER or Pike and Fischer Radio Regulation.

(c) All rulemaking documents are published in the FEDERAL REGISTER. Summaries of the full Notices of proposed rule making and other rule making decisions adopted by the Commission constitute rulemaking documents for purposes of FEDERAL REGISTER publication. See §1.412(a)(1). The complete text of the Commission decision also is released by the Commission and is available for inspection and copying during normal business hours in the FCC Dockets Branch (Room 230), 1919 M Street, NW., Washington, DC, or as otherwise specified in the rulemaking document published in the FEDERAL REGISTER. The complete texts of rulemaking decisions may also be purchased from the Commission's duplicating contractor.

(d) Formal policy statements and interpretations designed to have general applicability and legal effect are published in the FEDERAL REGISTER, the FCC Record, FCC Reports, or Pike and Fischer. Commission decisions and other Commission documents not entitled formal policy statements or interpretations may contain substantive interpretations and statements regarding policy, and these are published as part of the document in the FCC Record, FCC Reports or Pike and Fischer. General statements regarding policy and interpretations furnished to individuals, in correspondence or otherwise, are not ordinarily published.

(e) If the documents described in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section are published in the FEDERAL REGISTER, the FCC Record, FCC Reports, or Pike and Fischer Radio Regulation, they may be relied upon, used or cited as precedent by the Commission or private parties in any manner. If they are not so published, they may not be relied upon, used or cited as precedent, except against persons who have actual notice of the document in question or by such persons against the Commission. No person is expected to comply with any requirement or policy of the Commission unless he has actual notice of that requirement or policy or a document stating it has been published as provided in this paragraph. Nothing in this paragraph, however, shall be construed as precluding a reference to the rationale set forth in a recent document that is pending publication if the requirment or policy to which the rationale relates is contained in a published document or if actual notice of that requirement or policy has been given.

(f) The FEDERAL REGISTER, the FCC Record, FCC Reports and Pike and Fischer Radio Regulation are indexed. If the documents described in paragraphs (a) (d) of this section are not published, they are neither indexed nor relied upon, except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section.

(g) There are two Commission staff manuals, the FCC Administrative Manual and the FOB Manual. The FCC Administrative Manual (excepting Part IX, concerning Civil Defense, which contains materials classified under

E.O. 10501) is available for inspection in the Office of the Managing Director. Portions of the FOB Manual which pertain to administrative matters are available for inspection in the Field Operations Bureau. Portions of the FOB Manual which pertain to enforcement matters are not available for inspection. The Manuals are not indexed but are organized by subject, with tables of contents, and the materials contained therein can be located without difficulty.

(h) Subparts A and B of this part describe the functions of the staff and list the matters on which authority has been delegated to the staff. Except as provided in paragraph (g) of this section, all general instructions to the staff and limitations upon its authority are set forth in those subparts. As part of the Commission's rules and regulations, the provisions of these subparts are indexed in the FEDERAL REGISTER and the Code of Federal Regulations. Instructions to the staff in particular matters or cases are privileged and are not published or made available for public inspection.

(1) To the extent required to prevent a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, the Commission may delete identifying details when it makes available or publishes any document described in this section. The justification for any such deletion will be fully explained in a preamble to the document.

[32 FR 10573, July 19, 1967, as amended at 40 FR 17255, Apr. 18, 1975; 50 FR 27953, July 9, 1985; 51 FR 7444, Mar. 4, 1986; 51 FR 45889, Dec. 23, 1986]

$0.451 Inspection of records: Generally.

(a) Records which are routinely available for public inspection. Sections 0.453 and 0.455 list those Commission records which are routinely available for public inspection and the places at which those records may be inspected. Procedures governing requests for inspection of such records are set out in §0.460.

(b) Records which are not routinely available for public inspection. Records which are not listed in §0.453 or $0.455 are not routinely available for public inspection. Such records fall into two categories.

(1) The first category consists of those records or kinds of records listed in §0.457 and of particular records withheld from public inspection under $0.459. The Commission has determined that there is a statutory basis for withholding these records from public inspection. In some cases, the Commission is prohibited from permitting the inspection of records. In other cases, the records are the property of another agency, and the Commission has no authority to permit their inspection. In still other cases, the Commission is authorized, for reason of policy, to withhold records from inspection, but is not required to do so.

(2) The second category consists of records which are not listed in §0.453, $0.455, or §0.457 and have not been withheld from inspection under §0.459. In some cases, these records have not been identified for listing. In other cases (e.g., the general correspondence files), the Commission is unable to determine either that all records in a class should be routinely available for inspection or that all records in that class should not be routinely available for inspection, and individual determination is required.

(3) Procedures governing requests for inspection of these records are set out in §0.461.

(4) Procedures governing demands by competent authority for inspection of these records are set out in §0.463.

(5) Except as provided in §§0.461 and 0.463, no officer or employee of the Commission shall permit the inspection of records which are not routinely available for public inspection under §0.453 or §0.455, or disclose information contained therein.

(c) Copies. Section 0.465 applies to requests for copies of Commission records which are routinely available for public inspection under §§0.453 and 0.455 and those which are made available for inspection under $0.461. Section 0.467 applies to requests for certified copies of Commission records.

(d) Search fees. Section 0.466 prescribes fees to cover the expense of searching for records made available for inspection under §0.460 or §0.461. [40 FR 7313, Feb. 19, 1975]

$0.453 Public reference rooms.

The Commission maintains the following public reference rooms at its offices in Washington, DC and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. With the exception of the Private Radio Bureau Reference Room, which is located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, all reference rooms are located in Washington, DC:

(a) The Mass Media and Dockets Reference Room. The following documents, files and records are available for inspection at this location.

(1) Files containing the record of all docketed cases. A file is maintained for each docketed hearing case and for each docketed rule making proceeding. Cards summarizing the history of such cases are available for inspection in the Dockets Branch.

(2) Broadcast applications and related files.

(3) Files containing petitions for rule making and related papers.

(4) Rulings under the fairness doctrine and section 315 of the Communications Act, and related materials.

(b) [Reserved]

(c) The Library. Various legal and technical publications, and legislative history compilations, related to communications are available for inspection in the Library.

(d) The Mass Media Bureau, Auxiliary Services Reference Room. The following documents, files and records are available for inspection at this location.

(1) International Broadcast applications and related files.

(2) FM Translator applications and related files.

(3) FM Booster station applications and related files.

(e) The Mass Media Bureau, Enforcement Division Reference Room. The following documents, files and records are available for inspection at this location.

(1) Station files containing Notice of Apparent Liability and Memorandum of Opinion and Order and related files.

(2) Congressional correspondence files and related materials.

(3) Network correspondence files and related materials.

(1) The Common Carrier Bureau, Accounting and Audits Reference Room. The following documents, files and

records are available for inspection at this location.

(1) Files containing contracts between carriers and affiliates, accounts and subaccounts, pension filings, property records, disposition units, and depreciation rate filings.

(2) Computer II files and related materials.

files

(3) Official correspondence which include waiver requests and interpretations and related files.

(4) Docket 86-111 Implementation filings containing Cost Allocation Manuals and related materials.

(g) The Common Carrier Bureau, Domestic Facilities Reference Room. The following documents, files, and records are available for inspection at this location.

(1) Multi-Point Distribution Service application files and related materials. (2) Space and earth station files and related materials.

(3) Section 214 applications and related files.

(h) The Common Carrier Bureau, Mobile Services Reference Room. The following documents, files and records are available for inspection at two different locations. The Legal Branch is the responsible custodian for both locations.

(1) Station files containing a complete history of data submitted by the applicant that has been approved by the Commission which includes maps, diagrams, petitions, co-channel searches, and other background material.

(2) Pending files containing applications for additional facilities or modifications of existing facilities.

(3) Cellular Granted Station files and related materials.

(4) Pending cellular applications and related files.

(5) Petitions and related materials.

(1) The Common Carrier Bureau, Industry Analysis Reference Room. The following documents, files and records are available for inspection at this location.

(1) Files containing reports required by FCC Rules and Regulations, annual reports to stockholders, administrative reports, monthly bypass reports and related materials.

(2) Files containing reference material from major telephone companies. (3) Files containing Local Exchange Rates and related files.

(j) The Common Carrier Bureau Reference Room, Tariff Review Reference Room. Contains currently effective tariffs filed by Communications Common Carriers pursuant to various FCC Rules and Regulations. Also available for review and copying are recent revisions to tariff filings and the Public Reference Room Log which is prepared daily and lists the tariff filings received the previous day.

(k) The Office of Engineering and Technology, FCC Laboratory Reference Room. The following documents, files and records are available for inspection at this location. Files containing approved applications for Equipment Authorization (Type accepted, type approved, certified and notified) and related materials are available for review. These files are available in the Commission's Laboratory in Columbia, Maryland.

(1) The Private Radio Bureau Reference Room. Commercial radio operator application files and all authorizations in the Private Radio Services and files relating thereto, which includes Land Mobile, Microwave, Aviation Ground and Marine Coast applications. All of these materials are available in the Commission's offices in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. See §0.457(f)(3). This reference room also contains station files containing applications and related materials for Remote Pickup, Aural STL/CR, TV Auxiliary, and Low Power Auxiliary Stations in the Mass Media services. This reference room also contains station files containing applications and related materials for the Point-to-Point Microwave (including the Local Television Transmission Service) and Digital Electronic Message (DEMS) services in the Common Carrier services. Cards summarizing the historical record of applications and dispositions of the Broadcast Auxiliary service through May 1982 are available for inspection as well.

[32 FR 10573, July 19, 1967, as amended at 36 FR 15121, Aug. 13, 1971; 46 FR 27655, May 21, 1981; 50 FR 40014, Oct. 1, 1985; 52 FR 38764, Oct. 19, 1987; 58 FR 19772, Apr. 16, 1993]

$0.455 Other locations at which records may be inspected.

Except as provided in §§0.453, 0.457, and 0.459, records are routinely available for inspection in the offices of the Bureau or Office which exercises responsibility over the matters to which those records pertain (see §0.5), or will be made available for inspection at those offices upon request. Upon inquiry to the appropriate Bureau or Office, persons desiring to inspect such records will be directed to the specific location at which the particular records may be inspected. A list of Bureaus and Offices and examples of the records available at each is set out below.

(a) Mass Media Bureau which includes the Cable Television Branch, the Fairness/Political Programming Branch and the Audio Services Division.

(1) Applications for broadcast authorizations and related files are available for public inspection in the Mass Media and Dockets Reference Room. See §0.453(a)(2). Certain broadcast applications, reports and records are also available for inspection in the community in which the station is located or is proposed to be located. See §§ 73.3526 and 73.3527.

(2) Ownership reports filed by licensees of broadcast stations pursuant to §73.3615.

(3) Network affiliation contracts between stations and networks (for television stations only).

(4) Contracts relating to network service to broadcast licensees filed on or after the 1st day of May 1969 under §73.3613.

(5) Annual employment reports filed by licensees and permittees of broadbroadcast stations pursuant to §73.3612. (6) Cable TV system reports filed by operators pursuant to § 76.403.

(7) Contract files which contain pledges, trust agreements, options to purchase stock agreements, partnership agreements, management consultant agreements, and mortgage or loan

agreements.

(8) Rulings under the Fairness Doctrine and section 315 of the Communications Act, and related materials.

(9) Ruling lists which contain brief summaries of rulings.