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Baker Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1538 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 3:55 am Post subject: The Shareware Debate: Part Final |

To begin ... the shareware agreement for reference purposes.

Quote:
SHAREWARE VERSION: QUAKE LIMITED USE SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT This Limited Use Software License Agreement (the "Agreement") is a legal agreement between you, the end-user, and id Software, Inc. ("ID"). By continuing the installation of this game program, by
loading or running the game, or by placing or copying the game
program onto your computer hard drive, you are agreeing to be bound
by the terms of this Agreement.
ID SOFTWARE LICENSE
1. Grant of License. ID grants to you the limited right to use
one (1) copy of the enclosed or foregoing Id Software game program
(the "Software"), which is the shareware version or episode one of
the game program. For purposes of this section, "use" means loading
the Software into RAM, as well as installation on a hard disk or
other storage device. You agree that the Software will not be
shipped, transferred or exported into any country in violation of
the U.S. Export Administration Act (or any other law governing such
matters) and that you will not utilize, in any other manner, the
Software in violation of any applicable law.
2. Commercial Use is Prohibited. Under no circumstances shall
you, the end-user, be permitted, allowed or authorized to
commercially exploit the Software, or any portion thereof, such
as a screen display or a screenshot. Neither you nor anyone at your
direction shall do any of the following acts:
a. Rent the Software;
b. Sell the Software;
c. Lease or lend the Software;
d. Offer the Software on a pay-per-play basis;
e. Distribute the Software for money or any other
consideration; or
f. In any other manner and through any medium
whatsoever commercially exploit the Software or use
the Software for any commercial purpose.
3. Additional Prohibited Uses. Neither you, nor anyone at your
direction, shall take the following action in regard to the
Software, or any portion thereof, such as a screen display or
a screenshot:
a. Modify, disassemble, reverse engineer or decompile
the Software;
b. Translate the Software;
c. Reproduce the Software;
d. Publicly display the Software; or
e. Prepare derivative works based upon the Software.
4. Use of Other Material is Prohibited. Use, in any manner, of
the trademarks, such as Quake(tm) and the NIN(r) logo, logos, symbols,
art work, images, screen displays or screenshots, sound effects, music,
and other such material contained within, generated by or relating to
the Software is prohibited.
5. Restrictions Apply to Third Parties. The prohibitions and
restrictions described herein apply to anyone in possession of
the Software.
6. Permitted Distribution. So long as this Agreement
accompanies the Software at all times, ID grants to Providers the
limited right to distribute, free of charge, except normal access
fees, and by electronic means only, the Software; provided, however,
the Software must be so electronically distributed only in a
compressed format. The term "Providers," as used in the foregoing
sentence, shall mean persons whose business it is to provide
services on the Internet, on commercial online networks, or on the
BBS. Anyone who receives the Software from a Provider shall be
limited to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement. Further,
ID grants to you, the end-user, the limited right to distribute,
free of charge only, the Software as a whole.
7. Copyright. The Software is owned by ID and is protected by
United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions.
You must treat the Software like any other copyrighted material,
except that you may make copies of the Software to give to other
persons. You may not charge or receive any consideration from any
other person for the receipt or use of the Software. You agree to
use your best efforts to see that any user of the Software licensed
hereunder complies with this Agreement.
8. Limited Warranty. ID warrants that if properly installed and
operated on a computer for which it is designed, the Software will
perform substantially in accordance with its designed purpose for a
period of ninety (90) days from the date the Software is first
obtained by an end-user. ID's entire liability and your exclusive
remedy shall be, at ID's option, either (a) return of the retail
price paid, if any, or (b) repair or replacement of the Software
that does not meet ID's Limited Warranty. To make a warranty claim,
return the Software to the point of purchase, accompanied by proof
of purchase, your name, your address, and a statement of defect, or
return the Software with the above information to ID. This Limited
Warranty is void if failure of the Software has resulted in whole
or in part from accident, abuse, misapplication or violation of this
Agreement. Any replacement Software will be warranted for the
remainder of the original warranty period or thirty (30) days,
whichever is longer. This warranty allocates risks of product
failure between Licensee and ID. ID's product pricing reflects this
allocation of risk and the limitations of liability contained in
this warranty.
9. NO OTHER WARRANTIES. ID DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES,
EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A pARTICULAR PURPOSE
WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS,
IF ANY. THIS LIMITED WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. YOU
MAY HAVE OTHERS WHICH VARY FROM JURISDICTION TO JURISDICTION. ID
DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE
UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR FREE OR MEET LICENSEE'S SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.
THE WARRANTY SET FORTH ABOVE IS IN LIEU OF ALL OTHER EXPRESS
WARRANTIES WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN. THE AGENTS, EMPLOYEES,
DISTRIBUTORS, AND DEALERS OF ID ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO MAKE
MODIFICATIONS TO THIS WARRANTY, OR ADDITIONAL WARRANTIES ON BEHALF
OF ID. ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS SUCH AS DEALER ADVERTISING OR
PRESENTATIONS, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, DO NOT CONSTITUTE WARRANTIES
BY ID AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON.
10. Exclusive Remedies. You agree that your exclusive remedy
against ID, its affiliates, contractors, suppliers, and agents for
loss or damage caused by any defect or failure in the Software
regardless of the form of action, whether in contract,tort,
including negligence, strict liability or otherwise, shall be the
return of the retail purchase price paid, if any, or replacement of
the Software. This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with
and governed by the laws of the State of Texas. Copyright and other
proprietary matters will be governed by United States laws and
international treaties. IN ANY CASE, ID SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR LOSS
OF DATA, LOSS OF PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR OTHER SIMILAR DAMAGES ARISING FROM BREACH
OF WARRANTY, BREACH OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, OR OTHER LEGAL THEORY
EVEN IF ID OR ITS AGENT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. Some jurisdictions do
not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential
damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.
11. General Provisions. Neither this Agreement nor any part or
portion hereof shall be assigned or sublicensed, except as described
herein. Should any provision of this Agreement be held to be void,
invalid, unenforceable or illegal by a court, the validity and
enforceability of the other provisions shall not be affected thereby.
If any provision is determined to be unenforceable, you agree to a
modification of such provision to provide for enforcement of the
provision's intent, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Failure
of a party to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not
constitute or be construed as a waiver of such provision or of the
right to enforce such provision. If you fail to comply with any terms
of this Agreement, YOUR LICENSE IS AUTOMATICALLY TERMINATED.
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT, YOU UNDERSTAND
THIS AGREEMENT, AND UNDERSTAND THAT BY CONTINUING THE INSTALLATION
OF THE SOFTWARE, BY LOADING OR RUNNING THE SOFTWARE, OR BY PLACING
OR COPYING THE SOFTWARE ONTO YOUR COMPUTER HARD DRIVE, YOU AGREE TO
BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU FURTHER
AGREE THAT, EXCEPT FOR WRITTEN SEPARATE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN ID AND
YOU, THIS AGREEMENT IS A COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE
RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES OF THE PARTIES. THIS AGREEMENT SUPERSEDES
ALL PRIOR ORAL AGREEMENTS, PROPOSALS OR UNDERSTANDINGS, AND ANY
OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN ID AND YOU RELATING TO THE SUBJECT
MATTER OF THIS AGREEMENT.
June 21, 1996
SHAREWARE VERSION: QUAKE LIMITED USE SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT
(DWC:dw:3406.0024:DWC\doc:1163)

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Baker Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1538 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 3:57 am Post subject: |

1. The not running custom maps and modified games is not actually part of the shareware license agreement. 2. This is the ONLY document that matters in the shareware distribution. The document itself says so.

Quote:
THIS AGREEMENT IS A COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES OF THE PARTIES.

The End
(Right? If not, feel free to argue the point.)

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FrikaC Site Admin Joined: 08 Oct 2004 Posts: 947 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 4:26 am Post subject: |

Quote:
3. Additional Prohibited Uses. Neither you, nor anyone at your direction, shall take the following action in regard to the Software, or any portion thereof, such as a screen display or a screenshot: a. Modify, disassemble, reverse engineer or decompile
the Software;

Okay so 3 says you can't modify it, so modding is out. Granted this doesn't exclude the custom maps thing, however:

Quote:
4. Use of Other Material is Prohibited. Use, in any manner, of the trademarks, such as Quake(tm) and the NIN(r) logo, logos, symbols, art work, images, screen displays or screenshots, sound effects, music, and other such material contained within, generated by or relating to the Software is prohibited.

Custom maps "relate" to the software, ergo they are "Other Material" and their use is prohibited. Or at least, it could be interpretted that way.
I realize that's a pretty weak argument, but as I said in the old thread it may not be legally binding but I think we should respect the clause in LICINFO.TXT:

Quote:
3. THE SIMPLE RULES REGARDING THE SALE OF USER DEVELOPED QUAKE LEVELS AND/OR UTILITIES: -- User-developed/user-modified maps & utilities can only work with the registered version. (Just to be crystal clear on this point: user-developed/user-modified maps & utilities cannot work with the shareware version of Quake.)

I'm an author of a number of mods, tools and games and when I release something with a personal request not to do X, I'd really rather people obeyed my wishes. So in my mind, LICINFO.TXT which more clearly spells out what you can and cannot do is more important than any of the other licenses.
_________________
Last edited by FrikaC on Mon May 15, 2006 4:41 am; edited 2 times in total

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Baker Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1538 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 4:35 am Post subject: |

Your first quote block is in the registered version license agreement as well. That would make using any of the numerous post-GPL Quake engines against the registered agreement too.

Quote:
4. Use of Other Material is Prohibited. Use, in any manner, of the trademarks, such as Quake(tm) and the NIN(r) logo, logos, symbols, art work, images, screen displays or screenshots, sound effects, music, and other such material contained within, generated by or relating to the Software is prohibited.

That talked about unauthorized use of the included materials. In otherwords, don't misuse the media, the game manual, the music.

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Baker Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1538 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 4:44 am Post subject: |

Quote:
I realize that's a pretty weak argument, but as I said in the old thread it may not be legally binding but I think we should respect the clause in LICINFO.TXT

I think your heart is in the right place. I'm still exploring this.
I've taken a lot of things so far for a synthetic pak0.pak from various sources with liberal readme.txt's, including OpenQuartz and actually have received permission from someone who made some sounds for Quake (not ID authored stuff, some high quality mod sounds) ages ago.
But, if this is not actually required, I'm starting to wonder if the "creative" approach by the OpenQuartz concept isn't really the moral equivalent of something that is already, by strict definition, permitted.

Quote:
So in my mind, LICINFO.TXT which more clearly spells out what you can and cannot do is more important than any of the other licenses.

But it isn't true. The actual license agreement is very clear that it is the only document that matters. It is a COMPLETE and EXCLUSIVE statement.

Quote:
THIS AGREEMENT IS A COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES OF THE PARTIES.

I have more to add, should there be a later part of this conversation taking that forward.
But the slicense.txt makes it clear that it is the complete and exclusive statement of rights and liabilities. That clearly worded statement is tough to argue against.

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Baker Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1538 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 5:04 am Post subject: |

I might add, I wanted to start this conversation here where several knowledgeable individuals with a lot of experience could examine this. This is more or less your typical philosophical-ish conversation, in the sense I wish to explore this issue more fully than it has been discussed before.
My heart is not completely on the same page as my mind. At least not right now, it isn't. I'm still figuring out that second part (my heart not being on the same page), including a possible letter to ID Software.

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FrikaC Site Admin Joined: 08 Oct 2004 Posts: 947 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 5:24 am Post subject: |

Baker wrote:

Quote:
So in my mind, LICINFO.TXT which more clearly spells out what you can and cannot do is more important than any of the other licenses.

But it isn't true. The actual license agreement is very clear that it is the only document that matters. It is a COMPLETE and EXCLUSIVE statement.

If read strictly, the two bonafide licenses prevent basically everything. I think in the id camp there were two basic versions of the 'license'. The people who actually wrote the game loved what they saw with Doom and what mods could be dreamt up (hence the creation of QuakeC). They wrote LICINFO.TXT. They are the ones that wanted no custom maps on shareware, because shareware is a teaser for the real game.
The other was written by the lawyer(s). The lawyer(s) by virtue of their job are totally paranoid, and as a result they disallow basically everything so that later they may persue legal action against anyone they find who are "misusing" the product. If id or the lawyers find something they don't particularly like, for example Quake featured in some kind of negative light in a movie or something, they could go after them, hence the ban on screenshots.
No one at id would really go after people using screenshots to promote the game as has typically been done. So the clauses in the licenses are at best selective. They're the legal equivalent of covering all the bases. The fact they fail to mention custom content on shareware, I believe, is an most likely an oversight. It looks to me as slicense is more or less a cookie cutter license that probably predates the Quake engine, it would be fun to compare it to Doom's. Predating the engine probably means the thought of custom content such as was seen on Doom and as exploded on Quake was probably not really envisioned by the lawyers; they didn't know what the id team was talking about, and may have felt 'modify' covered it.
So I see the legally binding licenses as lesser of the triumvirate. I know they claim to be COMPLETE and EXCLUSIVE, but that's not what I'm adressing, I'm adressing the actual wishes of id software.
_________________

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Baker Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1538 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 5:55 am Post subject: |

I agree in theory with much of that. But I thought it was an interesting find that truly the shareware license agreement doesn't preclude the use of custom maps. You have to give me credit for that, hehe. (w00T! Baker rocks! Let's give it up for Baker! )
And the agreement clearly indicates that future understandings matter. My future understandings are that ID Software GPL'D the engine for modification and that John Carmack said this in the GPL release:

Quote:
John Carmack on the GPL Open Sourcing of Quake: You can still download one of the original quake demos and use that data with the code, but there are restrictions on the redistribution of the demo data.

So my future understanding is that this negates the modification part (section 3a). Otherwise every engine would violating both the shareware and registered version license agreements by working with pak0.pak or pak1.pak. Otherwise, we'd have to turn in LordHavoc, Tei, Fuh, Tomaz, Entar and Dr Labman into the proper authorities for violating 3a (a pic of using modifed software with Quake, aka "Neither you nor anyone at your direction shall do any of the following acts ... Modify, disassemble, reverse engineer or decompile the Software".)

FrikaC wrote:
id software repeatedly said in the past "Please do not make mods or maps that work with the shareware version", but this was ages before the code release, and at a time when that 'rule' was enforced by the engine itself

Hmmm ... I had not read your statement carefully enough in another thread. I was not aware that this was before the code release.
That matters a great deal as well.

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ajay Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 295 Location: Swindon, UK |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 6:56 am Post subject: |

I'm frequently oblivious to the obvious, but I juist don't get this debate. It seeme clear that id, along with most companies that release shareware stuff, want us/you/everyone to buy the full version of thier game and play around (modify) only that. That seems reasonable and based on sound principles.
So why even think of modifying the shareware? The full game is still out there if you spend 5 minutes* (less, actually) online, and once you've got it, and installed it, back your quake folder up and treat the cd like treasured, well errr treasue.
*http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PC-GAME-QUAKE-COMPLETE_W0QQitemZ8283815543QQcategoryZ11053QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Sorry if I've missed the point.
_________________
my site

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Baker Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1538 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 7:15 am Post subject: |

ajay wrote:
I'm frequently oblivious to the obvious, but I juist don't get this debate.

Just trying to get to the bottom of whether or not shareware Quake is prohibited from running custom maps, and from the above -- unless there is any new information --- the legal answer is no.

Quote:
It seeme clear that id, along with most companies that release shareware stuff, want us/you/everyone to buy the full version of thier game and play around (modify) only that.

That E-Bay link: "Condition - Used". ID isn't actually making any money off that sale. It's not really relevant to the conversation, but I thought I'd mention that.
--
This debate is somewhat centered around whether or not is "ok" for a shareware install using one of the many newer engines to run custom maps to expand the experience.
My take on the above conversation and discussion is that the answer is yes.
The purpose of the discussion, at least why I wanted to start it, is that the other viable alternative is the OpenQuartz approach which avoids the issue by avoiding ID content.
But if the shareware approach with custom maps is acceptable, I'm not sure of the necessity. The more I've worked on the second approach (the OpenQuartz-ish method), the more it feels like a technicality (ex: "Thunder Snake vs. Thunderbolt") ... why split hairs?
Especially if the shareware license agreement doesn't even disallow the use of custom maps, strictly speaking?

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Sajt Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 1026 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 9:14 am Post subject: |

As it appears to me: Since the GPLing, you can modify the engine, you can run modifications with the shareware data (obtained from a legit copy of shareware Quake), you just can't redistribute the shareware game data (or the registered game data).
Naturally a majority of mods do violate this by including reskinned monsters, etc. But what can you do.
_________________
F. A. Špork, an enlightened nobleman and a great patron of art, had a stately Baroque spa complex built on the banks of the River Labe.

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Preach Joined: 25 Nov 2004 Posts: 122 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 10:31 am Post subject: |

Baker wrote:
Especially if the shareware license agreement doesn't even disallow the use of custom maps, strictly speaking?

For consideration, the smallest mod in history:
http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/~ajd70/noir.zip
This mod replaces only the colormap and palette files (thanks Frik! thanks fimg!), and makes everything look like it's on sepia film. I'm pretty sure that everyone would agree this is a modification, and so wouldn't be allowed for the shareware version.
The question is, why would a map be treated any different than this mod? The term "mod" has taken on a technical term in the community, usually refering to a modified progs.dat plus optionally additional content/assets to go with it. However, it's not the only way to modify the gameplay(eg, the above).
I would argue that just adding a custom map qualifies legally as a modification of the original game. You add this file, and it allows you to play extra games with the shareware. The fact that none of the original files are replaced is not important, just that the end result is that the game is extended.
Also, you kinda selectively quoted the part about exclusive licence, with the preceeding half of the sentence it reads:

Quote:
YOU FURTHER AGREE THAT, EXCEPT FOR WRITTEN SEPARATE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN ID AND YOU, THIS AGREEMENT IS A COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES OF THE PARTIES.

I think the intent is that LICINFO.TXT is included as a seperate written agreement between iD and you, which would clear up any debate if it were the case. Clearly from reading LICINFO.TXT they don't want you to use it with custom maps. It looks to me like even if the shareware agreement was the only one that is legally binding, they could still make a case for prohibiting custom maps with it.

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Sajt Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 1026 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 10:58 am Post subject: |

The GPLing is another separate agreement. And if Baker is quoting correctly, JC says You can still download one of the original quake demos and use that data with the code, but there are restrictions on the redistribution of the demo data. Which means that you can run mods on the shareware, so long as the mods aren't including original data, even modified. Your sepia mod would be legal since they are a brand new palette and colourmap, not modifications of the originals (on a side note, JC has specifically said the palette can be considered public domain because it's not an important asset to id. )
Which means that mods that include only completely new content should be legal to run on the shareware (since the GPLing of the engine).
_________________
F. A. Špork, an enlightened nobleman and a great patron of art, had a stately Baroque spa complex built on the banks of the River Labe.

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Preach Joined: 25 Nov 2004 Posts: 122 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 12:55 pm Post subject: |

Sajt wrote:
The GPLing is another separate agreement. And if Baker is quoting correctly, JC says You can still download one of the original quake demos and use that data with the code, but there are restrictions on the redistribution of the demo data. Which means that you can run mods on the shareware, so long as the mods aren't including original data, even modified. Your sepia mod would be legal since they are a brand new palette and colourmap, not modifications of the originals (on a side note, JC has specifically said the palette can be considered public domain because it's not an important asset to id. )
Which means that mods that include only completely new content should be legal to run on the shareware (since the GPLing of the engine).

What JC says there is kinda ambiguous, it could be read to mean as little as "you can play the shareware on newly made engines". The line before that in his original statement is
"I will see about having the license changed on the shareware episode of quake to allow it to be duplicated more freely (for linux distributions, for example), but I can't give a timeframe for it. "
Unless someone can point me to a newer release of the shareware, I think you'll have to accept the licence stands, the shareware is just a demo of quake, and not a base you can build things on.

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Baker Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1538 |

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 2:15 pm Post subject: |

licinfo.txt explains that it is a plain language summary of slicense.txt. Licinfo is not an extra agreement, just a summary that was very true pre-GPL, because pre-GPL you would have had to crack Quake or otherwise do something illegal to make it run custom maps.

licinfo.txt wrote:
This document was designed to be a quick overview of our license terms.

And, in light of the future GPL agreement and the GPL release letter -- which explicitly encourages modification and explicitly permits the usage of the shareware data, an urban legend has been slayed today.

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