diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e3fea22..2e76720 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -17,8 +17,9 @@
 See our [web site](http://kafka.apache.org) for details on the project.
 
 ## Building a jar and running it ##
-1. ./gradlew jar
-2. Follow instuctions in http://kafka.apache.org/documentation.html#quickstart
+1. ./gradlew copyDependantLibs
+2. ./gradlew jar
+3. Follow instuctions in http://kafka.apache.org/documentation.html#quickstart
 
 ## Running unit tests ##
 ./gradlew test
@@ -66,6 +67,15 @@ The release file can be found inside ./core/build/distributions/.
 ## Publishing the jar for all version of Scala and for all projects to maven (To test locally, change mavenUrl in gradle.properties to a local dir.) ##
 ./gradlew uploadArchivesAll
 
+Please note for this to work you need to create/update `~/.gradle/gradle.properties` and assign the following variables
+
+    mavenUrl=
+    mavenUsername=
+    mavenPassword=
+    signing.keyId=
+    signing.password=
+    signing.secretKeyRingFile=
+
 ## Building the test jar ##
 ./gradlew testJar
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/consumer/TopicCount.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/consumer/TopicCount.scala
index e332633..0be03c0 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/consumer/TopicCount.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/consumer/TopicCount.scala
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ package kafka.consumer
 
 import scala.collection._
 import org.I0Itec.zkclient.ZkClient
-import kafka.utils.{Json, ZKGroupDirs, ZkUtils, Logging}
+import kafka.utils.{Json, ZKGroupDirs, ZkUtils, Logging, Utils}
 import kafka.common.KafkaException
 
 private[kafka] trait TopicCount {
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ private[kafka] class WildcardTopicCount(zkClient: ZkClient,
     makeConsumerThreadIdsPerTopic(consumerIdString, Map(wildcardTopics.map((_, numStreams)): _*))
   }
 
-  def getTopicCountMap = Map(topicFilter.regex -> numStreams)
+  def getTopicCountMap = Map(Utils.JSONEscapeString(topicFilter.regex) -> numStreams)
 
   def pattern: String = {
     topicFilter match {
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/utils/Utils.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/utils/Utils.scala
index a89b046..480d5f0 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/utils/Utils.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/utils/Utils.scala
@@ -540,5 +540,29 @@ object Utils extends Logging {
       lock.unlock()
     }
   }
-  
+
+
+  //JSON strings need to be escaped based on ECMA-404 standard http://json.org
+  def JSONEscapeString (s : String) : String = {
+    s.map {
+      case '"'  => "\\\""
+      case '\\' => "\\\\"
+      case '/'  => "\\/"
+      case '\b' => "\\b"
+      case '\f' => "\\f"
+      case '\n' => "\\n"
+      case '\r' => "\\r"
+      case '\t' => "\\t"
+      /* We'll unicode escape any control characters. These include:
+       * 0x0 -> 0x1f  : ASCII Control (C0 Control Codes)
+       * 0x7f         : ASCII DELETE
+       * 0x80 -> 0x9f : C1 Control Codes
+       *
+       * Per RFC4627, section 2.5, we're not technically required to
+       * encode the C1 codes, but we do to be safe.
+       */
+      case c if ((c >= '\u0000' && c <= '\u001f') || (c >= '\u007f' && c <= '\u009f')) => "\\u%04x".format(c: Int)
+      case c => c
+    }.mkString 
+  }
 }
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/consumer/TopicFilterTest.scala b/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/consumer/TopicFilterTest.scala
index cf2724b..6c4a8d3 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/consumer/TopicFilterTest.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/consumer/TopicFilterTest.scala
@@ -42,6 +42,29 @@ class TopicFilterTest extends JUnitSuite {
 
   @Test
   def testBlacklists() {
-    val topicFilter1 = new Blacklist("black1")
+    val topicFilter1 = new Blacklist("notthis.+")
+    assertTrue(topicFilter1.isTopicAllowed("something"))
+    assertFalse(topicFilter1.isTopicAllowed("notthis_anything"))
   }
+
+  @Test
+  def testWildcardTopicCountGetTopicCountMapEscapeJson() {
+    def getTopicCountMapKey(regex: String): String = {
+      val topicCount = new WildcardTopicCount(null, "consumerId", new Whitelist(regex), 1)
+      topicCount.getTopicCountMap.head._1
+    }
+    //lets make sure that the JSON strings are escaping as we expect
+    assertEquals("-\\\"-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\"-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\/-", getTopicCountMapKey("-/-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\b-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\b-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\f-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\f-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\n-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\n-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\r-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\r-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\t-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\t-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\u0000-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\u0000-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\u001f-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\u001f-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\u007f-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\u007f-"))
+    assertEquals("-\\\\u009f-", getTopicCountMapKey("-\\u009f-"))
+  }  
 }
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