It most certainly has to do with the < character. As you have surmised you need to use the < entity. If the value is the result of a
JSP substitution, it's easy to write a utility that converts character like <, >, & and the like to their entity references. I know of no standard
Java class that performs this function.
hth,
bear
[ September 24, 2003: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]