Understood, but that makes them symbolic as well, 
therefore, legal information in their own right. 
The interpretant of that, I suppose, is yet another 
foggy issue being resolved somewhere (ie, Reagle).

Gad, the stuff done to unify Public and 
system IDs....

len

-----Original Message-----
From: John Cowan [mailto:jcowan@[...].com]

"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" scripsit:

>  Are they in the semiotic sense, arbitrary signs (chosen 
>  by convention, and not inherently meaningful)?  

Yes, except that Source of Authority information is embedded in them.

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