Hello all, Well right now we in the States enjoy this right to use various symbols. This could be fleeting, however. Under secret negotiations being conducted under the auspices of the World Trade Association, these symbols could conceivably become classed as 'intellectual property', like computer programs or the 'look and feel' of graphical user interfaces used by various computer programs. It is all very silly, yet dead serious. Suppose Mr. Thomas Crapper had copyrighted his toilet design, also WTO international patented it, and today's laws were in effect back when he invented his porcelain convenience. Why we would find a coin operated vending device outside every toilet or 'loo' in every private home and business in the world for the sole purpose of paying Crapper every time we had to relieve ourselves. Greed tends to multiply. The fees would go up. And soon bankruptcies could be filed for families visited by the bane of diarrhea or 'Montezuma's Revenge' as it is called in the Southwest of the United States. Innovative folks would come up with alternative designs only to find Crapper's lawyers ready, willing and able to dump on it with the accusation of 'violating the look and feel' of his 'copyright'. They would have to endure this, as Crapper's device utilized the laws of hydrostatic flow in physics, and these do not change because we humans desire, in order to make some hateful stranger rich at our unappreciated expense, to be stupid in more sophisticated ways. Facetious, certainly. As facetious as the computer companies that stole Xerox Parc' designs for user interface and software application and got away with it for a while. Along came another that copied it again and these litigious corporate theives sued the newcomers, claiming 'infringement' and 'violation of look and feel'. The nonsense won the day in court and this plague was born that continues to infest society to this day. Yes we could lose our rights to many things because international corporations will then claim exclusive use under the World Trade Association rules. Heraldry symbols, for those who claim them, will come as a crumb falling from the table of the rich to legal protection as a 'copyrighted symbol' Any imitations would come under 'look and feel'. Future violations could entail criminal penalties levied by civil courts in foreign countries that would then have legal force in your country, where ever that may be. Your rights to free expression, for those of you that yet have these, may go the same way. We as Americans, as opposed to those in other and even other English speaking countries, can still speak and write freely, but this could pass too, as treaty provisions supersede national constitutions and foreign powers use the WTO treaty to gain legal suzerainty over American and British and Canadian and New Zealand citizens in this and other ways. The sun of liberty is setting ........God help us all. Lee Castleton maxlee@net-link.net yes, realize this is off topic, yet somehow relevant. Sorry for any inconvenience to those who consider it off topic.