This is not urgent as there is a work around as explained below. But I saw Anthony's note regarding -page going "global" and found a similar situation with -geometry not being respected within parenthesis and going "global".
I was basically trying to make a 100x100 transparent rectangular "hole" at an arbitrary location in an image. The arbitrary location is controlled by -geometry.
# this does not work properly even with -respect-parenthesis
convert -respect-parenthesis \( logo: -resize 50% -negate \) \
\( \( -size 320x240 xc:white \) \( -size 100x100 xc:black \) \
-geometry 100x100+110+70 -compose over -composite -write logo2_tmp4.png \) \
-compose copy_opacity -composite \
logo2_trans4.gif
![Image](http://www.fmwconcepts.com/misc_tests/logo2_trans4.gif)
# fixed by adding +geometry (and even removing -respect-parenthesis)
convert logo: -resize 50% -negate \
\( \( -size 320x240 xc:white \) \( -size 100x100 xc:black \) \
-geometry 100x100+110+70 -compose over -composite -write logo2_tmp5.png \) \
+geometry -compose copy_opacity -composite \
logo2_trans5.gif
![Image](http://www.fmwconcepts.com/misc_tests/logo2_trans5.gif)