def json_encode(value):
    """JSON-encodes the given Python object."""
    # JSON permits but does not require forward slashes to be escaped.
    # This is useful when json data is emitted in a <script> tag
    # in HTML, as it prevents </script> tags from prematurely terminating
    # the javascript.  Some json libraries do this escaping by default,
    # although python's standard library does not, so we do it here.
    # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1580647/json-why-are-forward-slashes-escaped
    return json.dumps(value).replace("</", "<\\/")