"advertisement"

means any written, printed, electronic or oral communication, including a communication by means of a public radio service, television broadcast or any other media or computer accessed communication in the media, which communication is directed to the general public, or any section thereof, and which is intended to call attention to, or to market or promote the services offered by a credit rating agency, and "advertise" has a corresponding meaning;

"analyst"

means a credit rating analyst;

"board"

means the board of directors of a credit rating agency;

"computer-accessed communication"

means any communication made by or on behalf of a credit rating agency that is published by or on behalf of such credit rating agency through the use of a computer or related electronic device, including, but not limited to, web sites, weblogs, search engines, electronic mail, banner advertisements, pop-up and pop-under advertisements, chat rooms, list servers, instant messaging, or other internet presences, and any attachments or links related thereto;

"credit rating agency"

means a registered credit rating agency;

"rated entity"

means an entity, security, financial instrument or issuer of a  security  or financial instrument whose creditworthiness is explicitly or implicitly rated in the credit rating, whether or not it has solicited that credit rating and whether or not it has provided information for that credit rating;

"related third party"

means the originator, arranger, sponsor, servicer or any other party that interacts with a credit rating agency on behalf of a rated entity, including any person directly or indirectly linked to that rated entity by control.