#Comicsgate - The Culture Wars Hit The Funny Books!

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What Waid did was wrong, but where are the damages?

If you compare me, I can at least show a comparison of $16k, $23k, $39k on 3 campaigns (if we count brutas) vs $3k on SCP.

Zack, on the other hand, has had nothing but success and top tier talent wanting to work with him. I don't have people rallying around me dying to support me.
Zack did $400K for Jawbreakers. And his next campaigns barely broke $200K so he can claim damages because he was kept out of the direct market (and maybe even employment as an IT specialist) and had his character assassinated by MW calling him a "white supremacist" and having to change his plans and produce the comic took time out of promoting his next book.
The fact that Stallone trusted him with Expendables is actually to his merit, since this proves that he is capeable of working with licensies but the time needed to do so had an opportunity cost for him.

Edit: And you know what, there are at least 5 people that read your post and pressed the reply button to do the same. That should be a hint about why you keep losing contacts to artists. Think better before you type something
 
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Nobody knows what opportunities were derailed by Waid's interference. Your scenario won't even be mentioned.
Zach has to know and he has to prove it.

No one knows what other opportunities were derailed, thus it is actionable interference.
Actionable but it's on the plaintiff to PROVE damages.

we won't ever know what could've come from that if it hadn't been interfered with.
That doesn't work in Zach's favor.

It also doesn't matter whether he had other publishers, whether they were better, or whether he even ended up doing better despite Waid's illegal attacks.
It actually matters very much when Meyer is required to prove damages.

They would have just chased him to the next guy and you know it. It's 2020, YaBoi has dialed it way down and these people are still seething about the guy saying their books were shit.
This is a good point and while it seems obvious to us the fact that Meyer turned down offers to pursue litigation works against him since he can't prove Waid would have interfered further.

Presumably, he'd argue that he'd lost future work, the opportunity to be in stores, and all that other stuff,
That's hard to prove when he turned down competing offers in favor of litigation.

he clearly suffered the direct damages of having to self-publish,
The problem with that is that he made way more self publishing and profiting off the ouutrage at Waid's interference than he would have made splitting the profits with AP. The judge isn't going to think that Meyer's near half million was a hardship when he compares it to AP's other titles and their gross sales.

That'll be up to the judge, though.
Determining damages is up to the judge but he's required to make that judgement based on proof of damages and even if Meyer wins he'll have a very hard time proving more than inconvenience. Monetary damages would be a hard sell.

Waid broke the law and he should pay but he probably won't or at least he won't pay much because aside from some provable incidental damages (a few thousand bucks) it's going to be very hard for Meyer to prove he lost money when he turned down all the other opportunities from competing publishers.

Richard should have gone with Dynamite or whoever to get his book in the store, cashed in on the outrage the same as he did and let his success be his revenge on Waid.

Instead Waid gets to play victim here to his commie fag friends, the case gets dragged out for years and if Meyer manages to get a judgement which is by no means guaranteed he'll have a Hell of a time getting a judge to award him more than low 5 figures.

Meyer's shot at litigation glory went out the window when he passed up competing offers. He should have accepted and then if those offers were rescinded he'd have an even better case against Waid and perhaps others.

It is what it is.

EDIT:
Bean sums up the last two years of ComicsGate rather well here.
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I'm no expert on law or the Meyer case but I think I can see what people are saying in this thread. First let me say I agree with Meyer and I don't like Waid at all, but there appears to be holes in the case from an uninformed point of view like my own.

1. Meyer argues that Waid's interference cost him access to top tier talent and had to outsource artists from overseas. This is easily proved false. Meyer has access to Jon Malin, Brett R Smith, Ethan VanSciver, Kelsey Shannon, Graham Nolan, Mike Baron, Chuck Dixon and Butch Guice, all of whom are/were industry pro's. He even obtained a license agreement with Sly Stallone on the Expendables.

2. Zack argues that he suffered financial damages due to the interference, which I don't disagree with. However the Waid interference boosted that initial Jawbreakers campaign to a record high, Meyer has never replicated the success of that initial campaign. I don't disagree that having to pay for his own fulfillment affected his bottom line but were those costs offset by the Waid boost? Meyer could argue that the interference delayed the book and subsequent book Iron Sights, but how would those damages be calculated?

3. Meyer argues he cannot get his books into stores, however he has made no effort to try. A lot of these Comicsgaters laugh in the face of getting their books into stores and are quite happy with the crowdfunding model which they believe to be the future of comics.

4. Meyer states that Antarctic was the only company willing to publish Jawbreakers, which others dispute. Capn Cummings and Jon Del Arroz claim that Jawbreakers was subject to a bidding war between at least four publishers and other publishers offered to print his comic. We know that Vox Day and Arkhaven were one of the publishers to approach Meyer and we've seen Alterna and Dynamite work with other Comicsgate creators recently.

5. The main issue I see is that it is Zack's word against the words of two others. Both Mark Waid and Antarctic Press claim that there was no interference, it's Meyer's word against theirs. Zack will have to prove interference without the help of the Dunn brothers of Antarctic since they appear to be siding with Waid.

Like I said I'm no expert, these are just potential hurdles that have been nagging at me.
Zack's law firm is legit and well known here in Austin. They wouldn't be pursuing this if they think he couldn't win.
I'm getting a strange sense of déjà vu right now...
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Again, all of the "But Zack is doing so well now!" arguments are irrelevant! Zack and Antarctic had a business deal; the deal fell apart due to the illegal meddling of Waid, an uninterested party; Zack suffered loss because of this. These are the statements of fact that will be under consideration. "Oh, but attention was brought to Zack which caused him to make even more money than he would have-" Irrelevant. There are still losses like not being able to be in stores. Mock that if you wish, but if you've seen enough videos, you know Zack has a real affinity for brick-and-mortar comic book shops and the culture there.

Remember that Zack didn't want to become a crowdfunding campaign runner and a distributor. He just wanted to write store-brand G.I. Joe comics with some buddies and have another company handle the finances and distribution. That was the deal Waid interfered with. That it turns out that Zack is quite good at the stuff he had to learn how to do by himself in a jiffy doesn't negate that he is quite likely the victim of a crime.
 
" Meyer's shot at litigation glory went out the window when he passed up competing offers. He should have accepted and then if those offers were rescinded he'd have an even better case against Waid and perhaps others. "

Do we know the contract details with Antarctic Press? What if it was considerably more preferential that any offered by anyone else? How can you quantify a contract surreptitiously cancelled to hypothetically different ethereal contracts? There is something called right to first refusal, I imagine this case will spell out it's antithesis, enshrining the right to first acceptance, torts be damned.

"Meyer argues he cannot get his books into stores, however he has made no effort to try"

He had distribution, now he doesn't. You're basically saying "start your own twitter" here, except unlike people who get deplatformed for ToS violations, Meyers did fuck all.

Now you might say, "he did, he did start his own platform!" and you're right.... and every bit of time this WRITER has wasted publishing, promoting, fulfilling, distributing, etc. should be calculated into damages as they are egregiously impacting his ability to work in his professional capacity.

I will admit I do have a bias here, I like YBZ about as much as I dislike Frog lol
 
1. Meyer argues that Waid's interference cost him access to top tier talent and had to outsource artists from overseas. This is easily proved false.

That's not even an element of the case. All there is is one count of tortious interference with (existing) contract. That's about the contract with Antarctic. There's also one count of defamation, but that strictly applies to one statement Waid made while physically present in Texas during a convention. This is a minor claim at best, and has nothing to do with the main claim, which is entirely about Antarctic Press. He doesn't have to prove any damages other than losing that contract.

5. The main issue I see is that it is Zack's word against the words of two others. Both Mark Waid and Antarctic Press claim that there was no interference, it's Meyer's word against theirs.

Their actual statements that Waid called them and made the threats he did established interference. They have no idea what tortious interference is, and their legal conclusions about it are meaningless. They aren't lawyers. If you said that your husband beat you and threw you down the stairs, then claimed he didn't assault you, it would be meaningless.
 
This might be a hot take that gets a lot of down votes but I don't care.
Richard Meyers lolsuit is a fucking joke and he's going to lose.
Mark Waid did nothing wrong warning Anarctic Press about comicsgate. Look at what a shit show its become.
The cult of ethan van sciver is a hate group and I pity anyone who gets involved with that fat retard. He comes across nice enough and he seems to be a real OG but I just cant get down with what he's selling. Outright lies and overpriced comic books.
SJW's are not the enemy, corrupt corporate comic book companies are. Guys like Nick Barrucci with no real moral compass are the real enemy and guys like him deserve to get fucked.
What Waid did was shitty and AP could have made a lot of money publishing Jawbreakers but from the looks of it Ethan had just as much a hand in sabotaging that deal [through his Dynamite doorway] as Waid did.

Richard can waste hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting a fruitless legal war when that money could have gone to producing dozens of comic books.
I'm a big fan of creating jobs but not for bloodsucking lawyers, fuck them. The money Richard has already pissed away on this bullshit could have paid multiple artists a years salary.

Despite how I may sound I dont hate Ethan I just disagree with him on a lot of things that doesn't make us enemies and I'd probably be considered "comicsgate" in the purest sense.

That being said I think it's a huge waste of energy to fight a loser like Mark Waid. I've actually met Waid, I've never met Richard Meyer. Waid was an okay guy. My interactions with Ethan on this site have been okay. The bad guys are the ones making decisions at a corporate level. I don't blame troons for making comics I blame the people who diversity hire them.

Its just like the beef with "man in a wig" mags no vag. Syfy network hired Brian. He has been hired to do multiple comics. I dont blame that MAN for accepting a job to pay his bills. I blame the people going out of their way to hire that faggot.

Good, the more people who get a copy of Bloodhoney the better. I really liked that comic, it's a god damned masterpiece. If Ethan offered to sell me a "honeycomb box" for $200 right now I'd take him up on it. Does a second printing devalue the first? Not in the slightest. My copy has a headsketch of CF, these won't.

The main reason I didn't back Rekt Planet is because Ethan himself didn't ask me personally to buy a copy. If he had, I would have bought one. I'm a big believer in customer service no matter how big you are.
The way I see it is if you're too big to ask for individual support you probably don't need it.

So by your words here, people shouldn't respect the law, shouldn't respect boundaries that are codified into law, and then when someone is damaged by those people messing with their shit and fucking with their lives and income against the law they shouldn't use the full extent of the law to get their shit back as much as possible. Yeah, fuck that noise. I've been sued as part of a lolsuit. YBZ's suit is NOT a lolsuit.
 
Zack did $400K for Jawbreakers. And his next campaigns barely broke $200K so he can claim damages because he was kept out of the direct market (and maybe even employment as an IT specialist) and had his character assassinated by MW calling him a "white supremacist" and having to change his plans and produce the comic took time out of promoting his next book.
The fact that Stallone trusted him with Expendables is actually to his merit, since this proves that he is capeable of working with licensies but the time needed to do so had an opportunity cost for him.

Edit: And you know what, there are at least 5 people that read your post and pressed the reply button to do the same. That should be a hint about why you keep losing contacts to artists. Think better before you type something
That has nothing to do with me being screwed with by cg.

Zach has to know and he has to prove it.


Actionable but it's on the plaintiff to PROVE damages.


That doesn't work in Zach's favor.


It actually matters very much when Meyer is required to prove damages.


This is a good point and while it seems obvious to us the fact that Meyer turned down offers to pursue litigation works against him since he can't prove Waid would have interfered further.


That's hard to prove when he turned down competing offers in favor of litigation.


The problem with that is that he made way more self publishing and profiting off the ouutrage at Waid's interference than he would have made splitting the profits with AP. The judge isn't going to think that Meyer's near half million was a hardship when he compares it to AP's other titles and their gross sales.


Determining damages is up to the judge but he's required to make that judgement based on proof of damages and even if Meyer wins he'll have a very hard time proving more than inconvenience. Monetary damages would be a hard sell.

Waid broke the law and he should pay but he probably won't or at least he won't pay much because aside from some provable incidental damages (a few thousand bucks) it's going to be very hard for Meyer to prove he lost money when he turned down all the other opportunities from competing publishers.

Richard should have gone with Dynamite or whoever to get his book in the store, cashed in on the outrage the same as he did and let his success be his revenge on Waid.

Instead Waid gets to play victim here to his commie fag friends, the case gets dragged out for years and if Meyer manages to get a judgement which is by no means guaranteed he'll have a Hell of a time getting a judge to award him more than low 5 figures.

Meyer's shot at litigation glory went out the window when he passed up competing offers. He should have accepted and then if those offers were rescinded he'd have an even better case against Waid and perhaps others.

It is what it is.

EDIT:
Bean sums up the last two years of ComicsGate rather well here.
View attachment 1469683
Yep, great post. Things need to be proven, you cant win on "but waid potentially hurt zack, who knows what opportunities were lost"

I'm no expert on law or the Meyer case but I think I can see what people are saying in this thread. First let me say I agree with Meyer and I don't like Waid at all, but there appears to be holes in the case from an uninformed point of view like my own.

1. Meyer argues that Waid's interference cost him access to top tier talent and had to outsource artists from overseas. This is easily proved false. Meyer has access to Jon Malin, Brett R Smith, Ethan VanSciver, Kelsey Shannon, Graham Nolan, Mike Baron, Chuck Dixon and Butch Guice, all of whom are/were industry pro's. He even obtained a license agreement with Sly Stallone on the Expendables.

2. Zack argues that he suffered financial damages due to the interference, which I don't disagree with. However the Waid interference boosted that initial Jawbreakers campaign to a record high, Meyer has never replicated the success of that initial campaign. I don't disagree that having to pay for his own fulfillment affected his bottom line but were those costs offset by the Waid boost? Meyer could argue that the interference delayed the book and subsequent book Iron Sights, but how would those damages be calculated?

3. Meyer argues he cannot get his books into stores, however he has made no effort to try. A lot of these Comicsgaters laugh in the face of getting their books into stores and are quite happy with the crowdfunding model which they believe to be the future of comics.

4. Meyer states that Antarctic was the only company willing to publish Jawbreakers, which others dispute. Capn Cummings and Jon Del Arroz claim that Jawbreakers was subject to a bidding war between at least four publishers and other publishers offered to print his comic. We know that Vox Day and Arkhaven were one of the publishers to approach Meyer and we've seen Alterna and Dynamite work with other Comicsgate creators recently.

5. The main issue I see is that it is Zack's word against the words of two others. Both Mark Waid and Antarctic Press claim that there was no interference, it's Meyer's word against theirs. Zack will have to prove interference without the help of the Dunn brothers of Antarctic since they appear to be siding with Waid.

Like I said I'm no expert, these are just potential hurdles that have been nagging at me.

I'm getting a strange sense of déjà vu right now...
Thats exactly what I was trying to say. He can claim damages, but when things look pretty good for him, it's going to be a tough win.

I am NOT on Mark's side, I'm just saying it does not look favorable for Zack.
 
I'm no expert on law or the Meyer case but I think I can see what people are saying in this thread. First let me say I agree with Meyer and I don't like Waid at all, but there appears to be holes in the case from an uninformed point of view like my own.


2. Zack argues that he suffered financial damages due to the interference, which I don't disagree with. However the Waid interference boosted that initial Jawbreakers campaign to a record high, Meyer has never replicated the success of that initial campaign. I don't disagree that having to pay for his own fulfillment affected his bottom line but were those costs offset by the Waid boost? Meyer could argue that the interference delayed the book and subsequent book Iron Sights, but how would those damages be calculated.

That’s not how the law works.

Imagine if I drove you car off a cliff on purpose.

Afterwards your dad takes pity on you, and buys you a brand new car.

Is the judge then supposed to rule that I don’t owe you any damages since you came out on top?

Of course not. The correct ruling would be to establish the value of the car destroyed and a ruling against me in that amount.
 
The thing about the driving off a cliff or being shot in the knees examples are that those actions and provable. AP already said Waid didn't interfere, so Zack needs solid evidence.

Again, I'm not on Mark's side, but it doesnt look favorable for Zack.
 
That’s not how the law works.

Imagine if I drove you car off a cliff on purpose.

Afterwards your dad takes pity on you, and buys you a brand new car.

Is the judge then supposed to rule that I don’t owe you any damages since you came out on top?

Of course not. The correct ruling would be to establish the value of the car destroyed and a ruling against me in that amount.

Very good explanation, and to make it a bit more specific to the situation, you could replace “your dad buying you a new car” with, like, setting up a GoFundMe for a new car and having that raise far more then the car actually costs.

It takes a bunch of extra effort managing and promoting a campaign that you could otherwise have just spent driving your old car. Even though you ended up with more money than you started with, it doesn’t cancel out the actual crime that occurred.

The thing about the driving off a cliff or being shot in the knees examples are that those actions and provable. AP already said Waid didn't interfere, so Zack needs solid evidence.

Again, I'm not on Mark's side, but it doesnt look favorable for Zack.

You’re working on a comic, with an artist. Another guy punches your artist in the face and tells them not to work with you. They suddenly stop working with you and claim they were never punched to begin with and that the alleged puncher had nothing to do with their decision, even though they have a visible broken nose.

The evidence is the original conversation to begin with, even though AP claims it had nothing to do with their decision.
 
The thing about the driving off a cliff or being shot in the knees examples are that those actions and provable. AP already said Waid didn't interfere, so Zack needs solid evidence.

Their legal conclusions mean absolutely nothing. They are not qualified even to make them and they are inadmissible. The actual facts they testified to establish the elements of tortious interference. Waid knew of the existence of a contract between them and Meyer and he directly contacted them, specifically for the purpose of inducing a breach of contract, and in fact did induce such a breach, in fact, making threats of serious economic harm if they didn't breach.

They suddenly stop working with you and claim they were never punched to begin with and that the alleged puncher had nothing to do with their decision, even though they have a visible broken nose.

Except in this case, they've actually testified as to being punched in the nose, the nose being broken, but claimed under hostile questioning something they're not qualified to testify to, that this didn't constitute interference, when they don't even know what that means.
 
Zack can argue that it impaired the retail distribution of his book. He also had to delay work because he had to find another way to publish. What are the damages? Could be anything. He can point to how much money his campaign raised and say it would be double that if Mark hadn't interfered. That'll be up to the judge, though.

I would also argue the production costs of Jawbreakers that would have been covered by AP, but Meyer had to pay out of pocket for thanks to Waid's interference as something that could be listed as damages.

@NasserRabadi13 It doesn't matter if the IGG campaign made him more money otherwise as he only made that money after people heard about Mark Waid's interference and backed the comic to give Waid a giant middle finger. What I am saying is without the lawsuit and people learning about what Waid did, Jawbreakers probably would not have been as successful.
 
The thing about the driving off a cliff or being shot in the knees examples are that those actions and provable. AP already said Waid didn't interfere, so Zack needs solid evidence.

Again, I'm not on Mark's side, but it doesnt look favorable for Zack.

No. I didn't want to dog pile you, but. Richard has solid evidence. Mark Waid called Antarctic, who before that conversation were onboard to publish Jawbreakers. He told them things with the intent that Antarctic would break its contract. Subsequently, Antarctic broke its contract to publish Jawbreakers. What must be established is not causality exactly. Its that the individual committed an independent and intentional act toward the contract and the contract failed.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/...-interference-contractual-economic-relations/.

Of course, none of this matters. Judges will do what they want, just look at the Vic case.
 
The big element of Meyer v. Waid and the crime being focused on is that Mark Waid interfered with a business arrangement between two parties. There was an agreement whose contract was broken because a fat psychotic manchild who cries every morning chimped and threatened one party's business. That's the main case of the trial. Zack's success in spite of that has no bearing on this and is irrelevant.

Like holy shit, this isn't hard.
 
All I know is that if Waid wins it will embolden the cancel culture crowd and they will come after even more "Nazi" scalps. It will set a terrible precedence for anyone currently in CG and it will be like throwing blood into the water for the Social Justice sharks.

Unfortunately, given the nature of how things are turning in America, I think it will all come down to the politics of the judge.

If the judge is a liberal Democrat, they are going to rule for Waid no matter what the law says because they will see it as a victory in the culture war.

If the judge is a conservative Republican, they will probably rule in favor of Ya Boi, but you never can tell nowadays because of how unpredictable Republicans are.

What will probably happen is the trial will keep getting postponed with the hopes to eventually bleeding Ya Boi dry of his lawyer funds and getting a judge they know who will be favorable to them. That's what I would do if I was Waid's legal team, seeing as how it would appear to be an open and shut case for Ya Boi, him being the victor.
 
All I know is that if Waid wins it will embolden the cancel culture crowd and they will come after even more "Nazi" scalps. It will set a terrible precedence for anyone currently in CG and it will be like throwing blood into the water for the Social Justice sharks.

Unfortunately, given the nature of how things are turning in America, I think it will all come down to the politics of the judge.

If the judge is a liberal Democrat, they are going to rule for Waid no matter what the law says because they will see it as a victory in the culture war.

If the judge is a conservative Republican, they will probably rule in favor of Ya Boi, but you never can tell nowadays because of how unpredictable Republicans are.

What will probably happen is the trial will keep getting postponed with the hopes to eventually bleeding Ya Boi dry of his lawyer funds and getting a judge they know who will be favorable to them. That's what I would do if I was Waid's legal team, seeing as how it would appear to be an open and shut case for Ya Boi, him being the victor.

Sometimes it isn't even about politics.
The judge's personality can be a factor as well.
 
Their legal conclusions mean absolutely nothing. They are not qualified even to make them and they are inadmissible. The actual facts they testified to establish the elements of tortious interference. Waid knew of the existence of a contract between them and Meyer and he directly contacted them, specifically for the purpose of inducing a breach of contract, and in fact did induce such a breach, in fact, making threats of serious economic harm if they didn't breach.



Except in this case, they've actually testified as to being punched in the nose, the nose being broken, but claimed under hostile questioning something they're not qualified to testify to, that this didn't constitute interference, when they don't even know what that means.

You're missing the point. Following this convoluted metaphor the case depends on establishing whether an action is a threat of an injury to the nose or a warning about how you might injure your nose if you walk head first into a door that's getting closed on you.

Well it will be if they ever agree on jurisdiction. FFS

I've got to be honest, I'm growing to think it's a scam. I've contributed twice to the legal fund, because of *Important Reasons* TM. Now it's years on and no progress except YBZ making a stack of money (and thus having no justification I can see to keep begging).

Worse YBZ has also kept silent about the *Important Reasons* TM when Ethan & Dynamite are pulling the Mark Waid shit.

More I'm thinking, this law case is just a publicly funded publicity stunt.
 
You're missing the point.

No, you are. The point is the elements of the tort. They're met:

  1. an existing contract subject to interference;
  2. a willful and intentional act of interference with the contract;
  3. that proximately caused the plaintiff's injury; and
  4. caused actual damages or loss.

1. is met. Antarctic and Meyer had already agreed to the general terms of a contract, and under Texas law, that's a sufficient contract to support a TI claim.

2. is met. Mark Waid was aware of the contract, and deliberately interfered with it. His action didn't need to be itself tortious, but it doesn't help his case that it was actually an extortionate demand accompanied by defamatory statements in addition to deliberately inducing a breach.

I've got to be honest, I'm growing to think it's a scam. I've contributed twice to the legal fund, because of *Important Reasons* TM. Now it's years on and no progress except YBZ making a stack of money (and thus having no justification I can see to keep begging).

How the fuck are they supposed to make a federal judge move faster? Are you retarded? Meyer's filed everything he's needed to file on time and not delayed the case. It isn't his fucking fault the other side keeps filing frivolous garbage that needs to be ruled on, again.

3. is met. Antarctic had previously been defying public criticism and announced their intention of continuing forward, and only changed course and terminated, opposite their public stance, immediately after being contacted and threatened by Waid, who demanded that they breach the contract, which they did. It's hard to imagine a jury concluding anything other than that they proximately caused the breach.

4. is met. If Meyer had to expend even a dime seeking another means of publishing, he would have a valid claim for damages.
 
Now it's years on and no progress except YBZ making a stack of money (and thus having no justification I can see to keep begging).

When this all first started, I was one of those in the crowd encouraging him to sue, and I specifically made the point that his fans would (try to) pay for it. We knew people like Waid would bully people because they could get away with it ... because victims aren't motivated to take a stand in court because of the time and expense. Rate me dumb all you want, but the deal with Zack is that we would fund his taking a stand for everyone who is bullied in this way.

I don't care how much money Zack makes; I don't want him to spend a penny of "his own" money on this.
 
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