Flag Usage Act

[Gorundu]

I recently realized that the law banning the usage of the regional Coat of Arms outside official purposes does not extend to the flag, which seems counter-intuitive. So I made this little fix:

The following clauses shall be added to Section 10.1 of the Legal Code:

7. The Flag of The North Pacific may not be used in written statements and dispatches by individual nations.

It's probably poorly worded at this point, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Darcania]

10.1.3 looks fine to me. "Or" in this instance refers to the color, and is not a conjunction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldry#Tinctures

Edit: Also, ftr, I am against this bill. The flag has never been used to represent the government of TNP, and its purpose is to represent the region as a whole. Only the seal is intended to be used to represent the government, and thus that is the only symbol defined in chapter 10 that should be protected by law.

 

[Robespierre]

I concur with Darcania

For the most part, I don’t think that there’s a need to extend this protection to flag of the North Pacific because our flag can mean a lot of different things depending on the person. The coat of arms is already protected and that’s because it actually does represent the government, but as far as I know and what I gathered from Darcania’s comments here is that the flag has never been used in that manner.

In theory this would be okay, but I don’t think it’s necessary. If anything, it could even be restrictive to patriotic North Pacificans who’d just like to proudly display the region’s flag without falling into a legal liability. I don’t see anything wrong with that, so I am also against.

 

[Dinoium]

I used to always fly TNP’s flag as my nation’s flag (I even have the old TNP’s flag as my Google Chrome background). This bill does not have my support.

As Darc and Robes explained, our flag is supposed to be something to represent all TNP members. This bill in my honest opinion will backfire heavily. Here are the things that would be affected:

• Nations that are flying our flag. Especially NPA puppets;
• Non-governmental dispatches with our flags;
• and many others.

This bill would essentially also make it almost illegal to fly TNP’s flag on Flag Day. No one obviously wants that. That kills the point of the holiday. The CoA makes sense because it’s more of something to be used for governmental uses. I don’t really see government entities using TNP’s flag in their seals except for the CoA. Hence why the CoA May only be used for governmental purposes (according to Darc however alternating the flag or using the CoA for flags is fine but that’s besides the point). The CoA is Governmental and the Flag is decorative. That’s how I see it. And that’s why I don’t support this bill.

 

[Sil Dorsett]

A non-starter in my view, and I concur with Robespierre with the concerns about restricting the flag's patriotic use. It really does make this bill feel unpatriotic in intent. We've done just fine with reserving the Coat of Arms for government purposes. The flag may embed the Coat of Arms, but it is not the Coat of Arms. If you're looking to reduce confusion, this isn't the way to do it.

 

[Gorundu]

As for my own bill, I've had more thought on it, and perhaps a blanket ban on using the flag isn't the best idea. However, I do think its usage should be banned in specific cases like certain types of player dispatches. I'll be editing it a bit.

Also, thanks to Darc's explanation of the Coat of Arms description. I've removed that part.