Federal Trade Commission Protecting America's Consumers

To foster greater understanding of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, the FTC requests that interested parties, regardless of whether they are selected to participate as panelists, submit written comments on the questions in the Federal Register Notice and on other related issues. Especially useful are any studies, surveys, research, and empirical data.

Such comments must be received on or before Tuesday, January 18, 2005. Our policy on how we handle the information you submit is available at www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

Please consider submitting your comments via electronic mail, as paper mail in the Washington area and at the Agency is subject to delay. If, however, your comment contains any material for which confidential treatment is requested, you must file it in paper (rather than electronic) form.

Instructions for Submission

Electronic Form

To ensure that the Commission considers a comment in electronic form, you must file it at https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-p2pfilesharing/. If, however, you wish to request confidential treatment of any of the material in your comment, you must submit your comment in paper form, as detailed below.

Paper Form

Mail or deliver, with two complete copies, to the following address:

Federal Trade Commission
Office of the Secretary, Room 159-H (Annex B)
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20580

Both the comment itself and its envelope should be captioned “P2P File-Sharing Workshop – Comment, P034517.”

Confidential Treatment
If the comment contains any material for which confidential treatment is requested, it must be filed in paper (rather than electronic) form, and the first page of the document must be clearly labeled “Confidential." Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR § 4.2(d). The comment also must be accompanied by an explicit request for confidential treatment, including the factual and legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from the public record. The request will be granted or denied by the Commission’s General Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR § 4.9(c).

Availability of Comments

The FTC Act and other laws permit the collection of public comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. Regardless of the form in which they are filed, all timely and responsive public comments will be considered by the Commission, and will be available to the public, to the extent practicable, on the FTC website. As a matter of discretion, before placing comments on the FTC website, the FTC makes every effort to remove home contact information for individuals. More information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, may be found in the FTC’s privacy policy, at ww.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.