§ 171. Definitions. Whenever used in this article:

1. "Commissioner" means the industrial commissioner of the state of
New York, except that in the application of this article to the city of
New York the term "commissioner" means the commissioner of consumer
affairs of such city.

2. a. "Employment agency" means any person (as hereinafter defined)
who, for a fee, procures or attempts to procure:

(1) employment or engagements for persons seeking employment or
engagements, or

(2) employees for employers seeking the services of employees.

b. "Employment agency" shall include any person engaged in the
practice of law who regularly and as part of a pattern of conduct,
directly or indirectly, recruits, supplies, or attempts or offers to
recruit or supply, an employee who resides outside the continental
United States (as defined in section one hundred eighty-four-a of this
article) for employment in this state and who receives a fee in
connection with the arrangement for the admission into this country of
such workers for employment.

c. "Employment agency" shall include any person who, for a fee,
renders vocational guidance or counselling services and who directly or
indirectly:

(1) procures or attempts to procure or represents that he can procure
employment or engagements for persons seeking employment or engagements;

(2) represents that he has access, or has the capacity to gain access,
to jobs not otherwise available to those not purchasing his services; or

(3) provides information or service of any kind purporting to promote,
lead to or result in employment for the applicant with any employer
other than himself.

d. "Employment agency" shall include any nurses' registry and any
theatrical employment agency (as hereinafter defined).

e. "Employment agency" shall not include: (1) any employment bureau
conducted by a duly incorporated bar association, hospital, association
of registered professional nurses, registered medical institution, or by
a duly incorporated association or society of professional engineers, or
by a duly incorporated association or society of land surveyors, or by a
duly incorporated association or society of registered architects; (2)
any speakers' bureau as defined in subdivision eleven hereof; (3) any
organization operated by or under the exclusive control of a bonafide
nonprofit educational, religious, charitable or eleemosynary
institution. (4) any person, firm, corporation or organization defined
and regulated by sections one hundred ninety-one through one hundred
ninety-three of this chapter.

3. "Fee" means anything of value, including any money or other
valuable consideration charged, collected, received, paid or promised
for any service, or act rendered or to be rendered by an employment
agency, including but not limited to money received by such agency or
its emigrant agent which is more than the amount paid by it for
transportation, transfer of baggage, or board and lodging on behalf of
any applicant for employment.

4. "Agency manager" means the person designated by the applicant for a
license who is responsible for the direction and operation of the
placement activities of the agency at the premises covered by the
license.

5. "Placement employee" shall mean any agency manager, director,
counsellor, interviewer, or any other person employed by an employment
agency who spends a substantial part of his time interviewing,
counselling or conferring with job applicants or employers for the
purpose of placing or procuring job applicants, but shall not include
employees of an employment agency who are primarily engaged in clerical
occupations.

6. "Nurses' registry" means any employment agency, bureau, office or
other place which procures or attempts to procure employment or
engagements for nurses licensed pursuant to article one hundred
thirty-nine of the education law as a registered professional nurse or
licensed practical nurse.

7. "Person" means any individual, company, society, association,
corporation, manager, contractor, subcontractor, partnership, bureau,
agency, service, office or the agent or employee of the foregoing.

8. "Theatrical employment agency" means any person (as defined in
subdivision seven of this section) who procures or attempts to procure
employment or engagements for an artist, but such term does not include
the business of managing entertainments, exhibitions or performances, or
the artists or attractions constituting the same, where such business
only incidentally involves the seeking of employment therefor.

8-a. "Artist" shall mean actors and actresses rendering services on
the legitimate stage and in the production of motion pictures, radio
artists, musical artists, musical organizations, directors of legitimate
stage, motion picture and radio productions, musical directors, writers,
cinematographers, composers, lyricists, arrangers, models, and other
artists and persons rendering professional services in motion picture,
theatrical, radio, television and other entertainment enterprises.

9. "Theatrical engagement" means any engagement or employment of an
artist.

10. "Emigrant agent" shall mean any person, on behalf of an employment
agency who, for a fee, procures or attempts to procure employment for
persons outside the state or outside the continental United States
seeking such employment, or employees from outside the state or outside
the continental United States for employers seeking the services of such
employees.

11. "Speakers' bureau" means any person whose principal business is to
provide lecture business management and promotional services on behalf
of lecturers or speakers and procures on behalf of a lecturer or
speaker, speaking engagements to appear in lecture programs established
by an individual or institutional sponsor and who charges a fee,
directly or indirectly, to such lecturer or speaker.

Whenever used in this article words in the singular shall include the
plural.