Thank you all for the replies. What an amazing forum!

I went to my fav LBS on my way home from work and got them to take a looky-see. A couple guys there agreed that it wasn't a problem for a couple reasons: 1. the rim is pinned, and 2. the downward force smooshes the ends towards each other. They believed it was the paint buckling and exposing the seam. We checked for flat spots on both rims and there was no indication of any problems.

I got home to check your responses (so many) and you were all, mostly, correct. I even got some pics ready for the thread, but it's no use now. If anyone would REALLY like to see them, lemme know!

Thank you again

PS. operator, I guess someone else HAS, in fact, made the same claim about their rim seam. Thanks for the link.