(a) Commercial use request means a request 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 on whose behalf the request is made. In determining whether a requester properly belongs in this category, LSC will look to the use to which a requester will put the documents requested. When LSC has reasonable cause to doubt the requester’s stated use of the records sought, or where the use is not clear from the request itself, it will seek additional clarification before assigning the request to a category.

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Terms Used In 45 CFR 1602.2

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.

(b) Confidential commercial information means records provided to LSC by a submitter that arguably contain material exempt from release under Exemption 4 of the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4).

(c) Duplication means the process of making a copy of a requested record pursuant to this part in a form appropriate for release in response to a FOIA request.

(d) Educational institution means a preschool, a public or private elementary or secondary school, an institution of undergraduate or graduate higher education, or an institution of professional or vocational education which operates a program or programs of scholarly research.

(e) FOIA means the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552.

(f) LSC means the Legal Services Corporation. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, LSC includes the Office of Inspector General.

(g) Non-commercial scientific institution means an institution that is not operated on a commercial basis 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.

(h) Office refers to the Office of Legal Affairs and/or the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

(i) Person includes an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or public or private organization other than LSC or a Federal agency.

(j) Records are any type of information made or received by LSC or the OIG for purposes of transacting LSC or OIG business and preserved by LSC or the OIG (either directly or maintained by a third party under contract to LSC or the OIG for records management purposes) regardless of form (e.g., paper or electronic, formal or informal, copies or original) as evidence of LSC’s or OIG’s organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of LSC or the OIG or because the record has informational value.

(k) Representative of the news media means any person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public, uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an audience. In this clause, 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 are television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large and publishers of periodicals (but only if such entities qualify as disseminators of “news”) who make their products available for purchase or subscription or by free distribution to the general public. These examples are not all-inclusive. Moreover, as methods of news delivery evolve (for example, the adoption of the electronic dissemination of newspapers through telecommunications services), such alternative media shall be considered to be news media entities. A freelance journalist shall be regarded as working for a news media entity if the journalist can demonstrate a solid basis for expecting publication through that entity, whether or not the journalist is actually employed by the entity. A publication contract would present a solid basis for such an expectation. LSC may also consider the past publication record of the requester in making such a determination.

(l) Review means the process of examining documents located in response to a request to determine whether any portion of any such document is exempt from disclosure. It also includes processing any such documents for disclosure. Review does not include time spent resolving general legal or policy issues regarding the application of exemptions.

(m) Rule means the whole or a part of an LSC statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of LSC.

(n) Search means the process of looking for and retrieving records that are responsive to a request for records. It includes page-by-page or line-by-line identification of material within documents and also includes reasonable efforts to locate and retrieve information from records maintained in electronic form or format. Searches may be conducted manually or by automated means and will be conducted in the most efficient and least expensive manner.

(o) Submitter means any person or applicant for funds who provides confidential commercial information to LSC.