[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 5, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2008]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 5CFR294.103]

[Page 104]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
                CHAPTER I--OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
 
PART 294_AVAILABILITY OF OFFICIAL INFORMATION--Table of Contents
 
  Subpart A_Procedures for Disclosure of Records Under the Freedom of 
                             Information Act
 
Sec. 294.103  Definitions of categories and assignment of requests
and requesters to categories.

    OPM will apply the definitions and procedures contained in this 
section to assign requesters to categories. The four categories 
established by 5 U.S.C. 552(a) are requests for commercial use, requests 
for non-commercial use made by educational or non-commercial scientific 
institutions, requests for non-commercial use made by representatives of 
the news media, and all others.
    (a) Request for commercial use. A ``commercial use request'' is from 
or on behalf of one who seeks information for a use or purpose that 
furthers the commercial, trade, or profit interests of the requester or 
the person or institution on whose behalf the request is made. In 
determining whether a request properly belongs in this category, OPM 
will look first to the intended use of the documents being requested.
    (b) Request for non-commercial use made by an educational or non-
commercial scientific institution. OPM will include requesters in one of 
the two categories described in paragraphs (b) (1) and (2) of this 
section when the request is being made as authorized by, and under the 
auspices of, a qualifying institution; and the records are sought, not 
for a commercial use, but in furtherance of scholarly or scientific 
research.
    (1) Educational institution refers to any public or private, 
preschool, elementary, or secondary school, institution of undergraduate 
or graduate higher education, or institution of professional or 
vocational education, which operates a program or programs of scholarly 
or scientific research.
    (2) A non-commercial scientific institution refers to an institution 
that is not operated on a commercial basis as that term is referenced in 
paragraph (a) of this section, and which is operated solely to conduct 
scientific or scholarly research, the results of which are not intended 
to promote any particular product or industry.
    (c) Request from a representative of the news media. 
``Representative of the news media'' refers to any person actively 
gathering news for an entity that is organized and operated to publish, 
broadcast, or otherwise disseminate news to the public. The term 
``news'' means information that is about current events or that would be 
of current interest to the public. Examples of news media entities 
include television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at 
large, and publishers of periodicals who make their products available 
for purchase or subscription by the general public. Free-lance 
journalists may be regarded as representatives of the news media if they 
demonstrate a solid basis for expecting publication, or some other form 
of dissemination, through a particular organization even though they are 
not actually employed by it. OPM will assign news media officials to 
this category only when a request is not for commercial use. If a person 
meets the other qualifications for inclusion, OPM will not apply the 
term ``commercial use'' to his or her request for records in support of 
a news dissemination function.
    (d) Requests from others. The category ``all others,'' consists of 
any requesters not covered by paragraphs (a), (b), or (c) of this 
section. However, as provided by Sec. 294.105, OPM will use its Privacy 
Act regulations, rather than this subpart, when individuals ask for 
records about themselves that may be filed in OPM systems of records.

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