Document ID: SEC-2008-1206-0001
Agency: sec
Document Type: Notice
Title: Options Price Reporting Authority: Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Amendment to the Authoritys Academic Waiver Policy
Posted Date: 2008-09-03T04:00Z

[Federal Register: September 3, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 171)]
[Notices]               
[Page 51545-51546]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr03se08-138]                         

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-58424; File No. SR-OPRA-2008-03]

 
Options Price Reporting Authority; Notice of Filing and Immediate 
Effectiveness of Proposed Amendment to the Options Price Reporting 
Authority's Academic Waiver Policy

August 26, 2008.
    Pursuant to Section 11A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(``Act'') \1\ and Rule 608 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that 
on August 11, 2008, the Options Price Reporting Authority (``OPRA'') 
submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') an 
amendment to the Plan for Reporting of Consolidated Options Last Sale 
Reports and Quotation Information (``OPRA Plan'').\3\ The proposed 
amendment would revise OPRA's ``Academic Waiver Policy.'' \4\ The 
Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments from 
interested persons on the proposed OPRA Plan amendment.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78k-1.
    \2\ 17 CFR 242.608.
    \3\ The OPRA Plan is a national market system plan approved by 
the Commission pursuant to Section 11A of the Act and Rule 608 
thereunder (formerly Rule 11Aa3-2). See Securities Exchange Act 
Release No. 17638 (March 18, 1981), 22 S.E.C. Docket 484 (March 31, 
1981). The full text of the OPRA Plan is available at http://
www.opradata.com.
    The OPRA Plan provides for the collection and dissemination of 
last sale and quotation information on options that are traded on 
the participant exchanges. The seven participants to the OPRA Plan 
are the American Stock Exchange LLC, the Boston Stock Exchange, 
Inc., the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated, the 
International Securities Exchange, LLC, the NASDAQ Stock Market LLC, 
the NYSE Arca, Inc., and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Inc.
    \4\ OPRA has not previously filed the Policy pursuant to Rule 
608 of Regulation NMS under the Act, and OPRA is proposing to 
formalize the Policy as part of its national market system plan by 
so filing it.
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I. Description and Purpose of the Plan Amendment

    Pursuant to its Academic Waiver Policy, OPRA waives its fees for 
universities that wish to use its data for research and educational 
instruction purposes. An OPRA academic waiver is only for OPRA's own 
data fees, and only for devices or User IDs used by students and 
faculty for research purposes and in classroom environments. As is 
stated in the Policy, even if a university receives an academic waiver, 
the university must execute an OPRA Professional Subscriber Agreement 
and, if the university will control entitlement of its devices or User 
IDs, the university must also execute an Indirect Circuit Connection 
Rider, describe its use of OPRA data and its entitlement control 
process on ``Exhibit A'' to the Rider, and make reports to OPRA in 
accordance with the Rider of its devices or User IDs that are entitled 
to receive OPRA data.
    The purpose of the revisions of OPRA's Academic Waiver Policy is, 
in general, to update the language of the Policy and emphasize certain 
aspects of the Policy. The proposed revisions do not change the Policy 
in any fundamental respect.
    Among the changes that OPRA is proposing in order to update the 
language of the Policy are changes to eliminate a reference to ``annual 
administration fees'' (since OPRA's fees do not include an annual 
administration fee) and to incorporate references to ``User IDs'' in 
addition to ``devices'' (since OPRA permits its Vendors, and its 
Professional Subscribers that pay ``device-based fees'' and control 
their own enablement processes, to make reports to OPRA with respect to 
the ``User IDs'' that they enable for access to OPRA data as an 
alternative to the ``devices'' that they enable).
    Among the aspects of the Policy that are emphasized in the revised 
Policy are that academic institutions that control their own enablement 
processes must make reports to OPRA with respect to the devices or User 
IDs that they have enabled for OPRA data, just as other OPRA 
Subscribers that control their own enablement process must.
    The text of the proposed amendment to the OPRA Plan is available at 
OPRA, the Commission's Public Reference Room, and http://opradata.com.

II. Implementation of the OPRA Plan Amendment

    Pursuant to paragraph (b)(3)(i) of Rule 608 under the Act,\5\ OPRA 
designated this amendment as establishing or changing a fee or other 
charge collected on behalf of all of the OPRA participants in 
connection with access to, or use of, OPRA facilities, and pursuant to 
(b)(3)(iii) of Rule 608 under the Act,\6\ OPRA designated this 
amendment as one involving solely technical or ministerial matters 
thereby qualifying the amendment for effectiveness upon filing. OPRA 
states that it will implement the revised form of the Academic Waiver 
Policy upon filing with the Commission.
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    \5\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(3)(i).
    \6\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(3)(iii).
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    The Commission may summarily abrogate the amendment within sixty 
days of its filing and require refiling and approval of the amendment 
by Commission order pursuant to Rule 608(b)(2) under the Act \7\ if it 
appears to the Commission that such action is necessary or appropriate 
in the public interest, for the protection of investors, or the 
maintenance of fair and orderly markets, to remove impediments to, and 
perfect the mechanisms of, a national market system, or otherwise in 
furtherance of the purposes of the Act.
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    \7\ 17 CFR 242.608(b)(2).
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III. Solicitation of Comments

    Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and 
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed OPRA 
Plan amendment is consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by 
any of the following methods:

Electronic Comments

     Use the Commission's Internet comment form (http://
www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml); or
     Send an e-mail to rule-comments@sec.gov. Please include 
File

[[Page 51546]]

No. SR-OPRA-2008-03 on the subject line.

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities 
and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE., Washington, DC 20549-1090.

All submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2008-03. This file 
number should be included on the subject line if e-mail is used. To 
help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently, 
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on 
the Commission's Internet Web site (http://www.sec.gov/rules/
sro.shtml). Copies of the submission, all subsequent amendments, all 
written statements with respect to the proposed plan amendment that are 
filed with the Commission, and all written communications relating to 
the proposed plan amendment between the Commission and any person, 
other than those that may be withheld from the public in accordance 
with the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be available for inspection 
and copying in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 100 F Street, 
NE., Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between the hours 
of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Copies of such filing also will be available for 
inspection and copying at the principal office of OPRA. All comments 
received will be posted without change; the Commission does not edit 
personal identifying information from submissions. You should submit 
only information that you wish to make available publicly. All 
submissions should refer to File Number SR-OPRA-2008-03 and should be 
submitted on or before September 24, 2008.

    For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets, 
pursuant to delegated authority.\8\
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    \8\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(29).
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Florence E. Harmon,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. E8-20316 Filed 9-2-08; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8010-01-P