§ 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 or delivered by electronic
   means 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 released through the Office of Media Relations
   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 Communications Regulation.

   (c) All rulemaking documents or summaries thereof are published in the
   Federal Register and are available on the Commission's Web site. 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 Office of Media Relations, the Reference
   Information Center, via the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS), 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 copy contractor.

   (d) Formal policy statements and interpretations designed to have
   general applicability are published in the Federal Register, the FCC
   Record, FCC Reports, or Pike and Fischer Communications Regulation.
   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 Communications Regulation. 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 Communications Regulation, they are
   indexed, and 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 or she 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 a recent document that is pending publication.

   (f) 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. All general instructions to the staff and limitations upon its
   authority are set forth in those subparts or in decisions of the
   Commission published in the Federal Register. Instructions to the staff
   in particular matters or cases are privileged and/or protected and are
   not published or made available for public inspection.

   (g) To the extent required to prevent a clearly unwarranted invasion of
   personal privacy, or to prevent disclosure of information required or
   authorized to be withheld by another statute, the Commission may delete
   identifying details or confidential information 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.

   [ 74 FR 14078 , Mar. 30, 2009, as amended at  76 FR 24388 , May 2, 2011]

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