[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 5, Volume 3]
[Revised as of January 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 5CFR1820.3]

[Page 304]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
                 CHAPTER VIII--OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL
 
PART 1820_PUBLIC INFORMATION--Table of Contents
 
Sec.  1820.3  Categories of requesters under the Freedom of Information Act.

    There are four categories of requesters:
    (a) Commercial use requesters. These requesters seek information for 
themselves or on behalf of someone else for a use or purpose that 
furthers commercial, trade, or profit interests of the requester or the 
person on whose behalf the request is made. A requester will not be 
presumed to be a ``commercial use requester'' merely by submitting a 
request on corporate letterhead without further explanation of the use 
to which he plans to put the requested information. Similarly, a request 
submitted on the letterhead of a nonprofit organization without further 
explanation will not be presumed to be for a noncommercial purpose. The 
Office of Special Counsel will seek clarification from the requester 
where there is a reasonable doubt as to the intended use of the 
information.
    (b) Educational and noncommercial scientific institution requesters. 
(1) An ``educational institution'' requester is associated with a 
preschool, a public or private elementary or secondary school, an 
institution of undergraduate or graduate higher education, or an 
institution of vocational or professional education, that operates a 
program or programs of scholarly research, and seeks the information for 
a scholarly or scientific research goal of the institution, rather than 
for an individual goal.
    (2) A ``noncommercial scientific institution'' requester is 
associated with an institution that is not operated on a ``commercial'' 
basis (as that term is defined by paragraph (a) of this section), and 
which is operated solely for the purpose of conducting scientific 
research, the results of which are not intended to promote any 
particular product or industry.
    (c) News media requesters. These requesters actively gather news for 
entities that are organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to 
the public. Freelance journalists may be news media requesters if they 
can demonstrate a solid basis for expecting publication through a news 
organization (such as by producing a publication contract or citing 
their past publication records), even though not actually employed by 
it. ``News'' means information about current events or information that 
would be of current interest to the public. News media ``entities'' 
include, but are not limited to, television or radio stations 
broadcasting to the public at large, and publishers of periodicals (but 
only in those instances when they can qualify as disseminators of 
``news'') who make their products available for purchase or subscription 
by the general public.
    (d) All other requesters.