diff --git a/ox/__init__.py b/ox/__init__.py
index 4620e8f..98402fb 100644
--- a/ox/__init__.py
+++ b/ox/__init__.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ try:
     from . import __version
     __version__ = __version.VERSION
 except:
-    __version__ = '3.0.x'
+    __version__ = '2.3.x'
 
 from . import cache
 from . import js
diff --git a/ox/api.py b/ox/api.py
index 88af34f..639fec0 100644
--- a/ox/api.py
+++ b/ox/api.py
@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@ import shutil
 import sys
 import time
 
-from http import cookiejar as cookielib
-from io import BytesIO
-import urllib
-from urllib.parse import urlparse
+from six.moves import http_cookiejar as cookielib
+from six import BytesIO, PY2
+from six.moves import urllib
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import urlparse
 import requests
 
 from . import __version__
@@ -56,7 +56,10 @@ class API(object):
     def _add_method(self, method, name):
         if name is None:
             name = method.func_name
-        setattr(self, name, MethodType(method, self))
+        if PY2:
+            setattr(self, name, MethodType(method, self, type(self)))
+        else:
+            setattr(self, name, MethodType(method, self))
 
     def _add_action(self, action):
         def method(self, *args, **kw):
@@ -70,7 +73,10 @@ class API(object):
             return self._request(action, kw)
         if 'doc' in self._properties[action]:
             method.__doc__ = self._properties[action]['doc']
-        method.func_name = action
+        if PY2:
+            method.func_name = str(action)
+        else:
+            method.func_name = action
         self._add_method(method, action)
 
     def _json_request(self, url, data, files=None):
diff --git a/ox/cache.py b/ox/cache.py
index 3954ea7..ba41574 100644
--- a/ox/cache.py
+++ b/ox/cache.py
@@ -10,11 +10,15 @@ import sqlite3
 import time
 import zlib
 
-from io import BytesIO
-import urllib
-import requests
-from requests.structures import CaseInsensitiveDict
-
+from six import BytesIO
+from six.moves import urllib
+from six import PY2
+try:
+    import requests
+    USE_REQUESTS = True
+    requests_session = requests.Session()
+except:
+    USE_REQUESTS = False
 
 from .utils import json
 from .file import makedirs
@@ -24,7 +28,6 @@ from .net import DEFAULT_HEADERS, detect_encoding
 
 
 cache_timeout = 30*24*60*60  # default is 30 days
-requests_session = requests.Session()
 
 COMPRESS_TYPES = (
     'text/html',
@@ -66,7 +69,7 @@ def get_headers(url, data=None, headers=None, timeout=cache_timeout):
     if not url_headers:
         url_headers = net.get_headers(url, data, headers)
         store.set(url, data, -1, url_headers)
-    return CaseInsensitiveDict(url_headers)
+    return url_headers
 
 def get_json(url, data=None, headers=None, timeout=cache_timeout):
     return json.loads(read_url(url, data, headers, timeout).decode('utf-8'))
@@ -98,20 +101,35 @@ def read_url(url, data=None, headers=None, timeout=cache_timeout, valid=None, un
     result = store.get(url, data, headers, timeout)
     url_headers = {}
     if not result:
-        if headers is None:
-            headers = DEFAULT_HEADERS.copy()
-        if data:
-            r = requests_session.post(url, data=data, headers=headers)
+        if USE_REQUESTS:
+            if headers is None:
+                headers = DEFAULT_HEADERS.copy()
+            if data:
+                r = requests_session.post(url, data=data, headers=headers)
+            else:
+                r = requests_session.get(url, headers=headers)
+            for key in r.headers:
+                url_headers[key.lower()] = r.headers[key]
+            result = r.content
+            url_headers['Status'] = "%s" % r.status_code
+            if not valid or valid(result, url_headers):
+                store.set(url, post_data=data, data=result, headers=url_headers)
+            else:
+                raise InvalidResult(result, url_headers)
         else:
-            r = requests_session.get(url, headers=headers)
-        for key in r.headers:
-            url_headers[key.lower()] = r.headers[key]
-        result = r.content
-        url_headers['Status'] = "%s" % r.status_code
-        if not valid or valid(result, url_headers):
-            store.set(url, post_data=data, data=result, headers=url_headers)
-        else:
-            raise InvalidResult(result, url_headers)
+            try:
+                url_headers, result = net.read_url(url, data, headers, return_headers=True)
+            except urllib.error.HTTPError as e:
+                e.headers['Status'] = "%s" % e.code
+                for key in e.headers:
+                    url_headers[key.lower()] = e.headers[key]
+                result = e.read()
+                if url_headers.get('content-encoding', None) == 'gzip':
+                    result = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=BytesIO(result)).read()
+            if not valid or valid(result, url_headers):
+                store.set(url, post_data=data, data=result, headers=url_headers)
+            else:
+                raise InvalidResult(result, url_headers)
     if unicode:
         ctype = url_headers.get('content-type', '').lower()
         if 'charset' in ctype:
@@ -224,6 +242,8 @@ class SQLiteCache(Cache):
             elif value == 'data':
                 if row[1] == 1:
                     r = zlib.decompress(r)
+                elif PY2:
+                    r = str(r)
             break
 
         c.close()
@@ -262,8 +282,6 @@ class SQLiteCache(Cache):
             data = zlib.compress(data)
         else:
             compressed = 0
-        if isinstance(data, str):
-            data = data.encode("utf-8")
         data = sqlite3.Binary(data)
 
         #fixme: this looks wrong
diff --git a/ox/fixunicode.py b/ox/fixunicode.py
index e0386c6..d3a162d 100644
--- a/ox/fixunicode.py
+++ b/ox/fixunicode.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 
 import unicodedata
 
+from six import unichr, text_type
 
 __all__ = ['fix_bad_unicode']
 
@@ -150,7 +151,7 @@ def text_badness(text):
     - Improbable single-byte characters, such as ƒ or ¬
     - Letters in somewhat rare scripts
     '''
-    assert isinstance(text, str)
+    assert isinstance(text, text_type)
     errors = 0
     very_weird_things = 0
     weird_things = 0
@@ -288,7 +289,7 @@ SINGLE_BYTE_WEIRDNESS = (
 # Pre-cache the Unicode data saying which of these first 256 characters are
 # letters. We'll need it often.
 SINGLE_BYTE_LETTERS = [
-    unicodedata.category(chr(i)).startswith('L')
+    unicodedata.category(unichr(i)).startswith('L')
     for i in range(256)
 ]
 
diff --git a/ox/form.py b/ox/form.py
index 1a182c2..faa1551 100644
--- a/ox/form.py
+++ b/ox/form.py
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ import os
 import hashlib
 import sys
 
+from six import PY2
+
 
 __all__ = ['MultiPartForm']
 
@@ -61,6 +63,8 @@ class MultiPartForm(object):
 
     def __str__(self):
         body = self.body()
+        if not PY2:
+            body = body.decode('utf-8')
         return body
 
     def body(self):
diff --git a/ox/format.py b/ox/format.py
index 83756c1..ad18c31 100644
--- a/ox/format.py
+++ b/ox/format.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ import math
 import re
 import string
 
+from six import text_type
+
 def toAZ(num):
     """
     Converts an integer to bijective base 26 string using A-Z
@@ -106,7 +108,7 @@ def to32(q):
     >>> to32(555306645)
     'GHJKMN'
 
-    >>> to32(800197332334559)
+    >>> to32(800197332334559L)
     'PQRSTVWXYZ'
 
     >>> to32(32)
@@ -224,36 +226,36 @@ def to36(q):
 def from36(q):
     return int(q, 36)
 
-def int_value(strValue, default=''):
+def int_value(strValue, default=u''):
     """
     >>> int_value('abc23')
-    '23'
+    u'23'
 
     >>> int_value(' abc23')
-    '23'
+    u'23'
 
     >>> int_value('ab')
-    ''
+    u''
     """
     try:
-        val = re.compile('(\d+)').findall(str(strValue).strip())[0]
+        val = re.compile('(\d+)').findall(text_type(strValue).strip())[0]
     except:
         val = default
     return val
 
-def float_value(strValue, default=''):
+def float_value(strValue, default=u''):
     """
     >>> float_value('abc23.4')
-    '23.4'
+    u'23.4'
 
     >>> float_value(' abc23.4')
-    '23.4'
+    u'23.4'
 
     >>> float_value('ab')
-    ''
+    u''
     """
     try:
-        val = re.compile('([\d.]+)').findall(str(strValue).strip())[0]
+        val = re.compile('([\d.]+)').findall(text_type(strValue).strip())[0]
     except:
         val = default
     return val
diff --git a/ox/html.py b/ox/html.py
index 8666713..73234ea 100644
--- a/ox/html.py
+++ b/ox/html.py
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 # GPL 2008
 import re
 import string
-from html.entities import name2codepoint
+from six.moves.html_entities import name2codepoint
+from six import unichr, PY2, string_types
 
 letters = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
 
@@ -25,7 +26,8 @@ link_target_attribute_re = re.compile(r'(<a [^>]*?)target=[^\s>]+')
 html_gunk_re = re.compile(r'(?:<br clear="all">|<i><\/i>|<b><\/b>|<em><\/em>|<strong><\/strong>|<\/?smallcaps>|<\/?uppercase>)', re.IGNORECASE)
 hard_coded_bullets_re = re.compile(r'((?:<p>(?:%s).*?[a-zA-Z].*?</p>\s*)+)' % '|'.join([re.escape(x) for x in DOTS]), re.DOTALL)
 trailing_empty_content_re = re.compile(r'(?:<p>(?:&nbsp;|\s|<br \/>)*?</p>\s*)+\Z')
-
+if PY2:
+    del x  # Temporary variable
 
 def escape(html):
     '''
@@ -34,7 +36,7 @@ def escape(html):
     >>> escape('html "test" & <brothers>')
     'html &quot;test&quot; &amp; &lt;brothers&gt;'
     '''
-    if not isinstance(html, str):
+    if not isinstance(html, string_types):
         html = str(html)
     return html.replace('&', '&amp;').replace('<', '&lt;').replace('>', '&gt;').replace('"', '&quot;').replace("'", '&apos;')
 
@@ -145,20 +147,20 @@ charrefpat = re.compile(r'&(#(\d+|x[\da-fA-F]+)|[\w.:-]+);?')
 def decode_html(html):
     """
     >>> decode_html('me &amp; you and &#36;&#38;%')
-    'me & you and $&%'
+    u'me & you and $&%'
     >>> decode_html('&#x80;')
-    '\u20ac'
+    u'\u20ac'
     >>> decode_html('Anniversary of Daoud&apos;s Republic')
-    "Anniversary of Daoud's Republic"
+    u"Anniversary of Daoud's Republic"
     """
     if isinstance(html, bytes):
         html = html.decode('utf-8')
-    uchr = chr
+    uchr = unichr
 
     def entitydecode(match, uchr=uchr):
         entity = match.group(1)
         if entity == '#x80':
-            return '€'
+            return u'€'
         elif entity.startswith('#x'):
             return uchr(int(entity[2:], 16))
         elif entity.startswith('#'):
@@ -169,7 +171,7 @@ def decode_html(html):
             return "'"
         else:
             return match.group(0)
-    return charrefpat.sub(entitydecode, html).replace('\xa0', ' ')
+    return charrefpat.sub(entitydecode, html).replace(u'\xa0', ' ')
 
 def highlight(text, query, hlClass="hl"):
     """
@@ -187,51 +189,51 @@ def highlight(text, query, hlClass="hl"):
 
 def escape_html(value):
     '''
-    >>> escape_html('<script> foo')
-    '&lt;script&gt; foo'
-    >>> escape_html('&lt;script&gt; foo')
-    '&lt;script&gt; foo'
+    >>> escape_html(u'<script> foo')
+    u'&lt;script&gt; foo'
+    >>> escape_html(u'&lt;script&gt; foo')
+    u'&lt;script&gt; foo'
     '''
     return escape(decode_html(value))
 
 def sanitize_html(html, tags=None, global_attributes=[]):
     '''
     >>> sanitize_html('http://foo.com, bar')
-    '<a href="http://foo.com">http://foo.com</a>, bar'
+    u'<a href="http://foo.com">http://foo.com</a>, bar'
     >>> sanitize_html('http://foo.com/foobar?foo, bar')
-    '<a href="http://foo.com/foobar?foo">http://foo.com/foobar?foo</a>, bar'
+    u'<a href="http://foo.com/foobar?foo">http://foo.com/foobar?foo</a>, bar'
     >>> sanitize_html('(see: www.foo.com)')
-    '(see: <a href="http://www.foo.com">www.foo.com</a>)'
+    u'(see: <a href="http://www.foo.com">www.foo.com</a>)'
     >>> sanitize_html('foo@bar.com')
-    '<a href="mailto:foo@bar.com">foo@bar.com</a>'
+    u'<a href="mailto:foo@bar.com">foo@bar.com</a>'
     >>> sanitize_html(sanitize_html('foo@bar.com'))
-    '<a href="mailto:foo@bar.com">foo@bar.com</a>'
+    u'<a href="mailto:foo@bar.com">foo@bar.com</a>'
     >>> sanitize_html('<a href="http://foo.com" onmouseover="alert()">foo</a>')
-    '<a href="http://foo.com">foo</a>'
+    u'<a href="http://foo.com">foo</a>'
     >>> sanitize_html('<a href="javascript:alert()">foo</a>')
-    '&lt;a href="javascript:alert()"&gt;foo&lt;/a&gt;'
+    u'&lt;a href="javascript:alert()"&gt;foo&lt;/a&gt;'
     >>> sanitize_html('[http://foo.com foo]')
-    '<a href="http://foo.com">foo</a>'
+    u'<a href="http://foo.com">foo</a>'
     >>> sanitize_html('<div style="direction: rtl">foo</div>')
-    '<div style="direction: rtl">foo</div>'
+    u'<div style="direction: rtl">foo</div>'
     >>> sanitize_html('<script>alert()</script>')
-    '&lt;script&gt;alert()&lt;/script&gt;'
+    u'&lt;script&gt;alert()&lt;/script&gt;'
     >>> sanitize_html("'foo' < 'bar' && \\"foo\\" > \\"bar\\"")
-    '\\'foo\\' &lt; \\'bar\\' &amp;&amp; "foo" &gt; "bar"'
+    u'\\'foo\\' &lt; \\'bar\\' &amp;&amp; "foo" &gt; "bar"'
     >>> sanitize_html('<b>foo')
-    '<b>foo</b>'
+    u'<b>foo</b>'
     >>> sanitize_html('<b>foo</b></b>')
-    '<b>foo</b>'
+    u'<b>foo</b>'
     >>> sanitize_html('Anniversary of Daoud&apos;s Republic')
-    "Anniversary of Daoud's Republic"
+    u"Anniversary of Daoud's Republic"
     >>> sanitize_html('')
-    ''
+    u''
     >>> sanitize_html(' ')
-    ' '
-    >>> sanitize_html('&nbsp;')  # canonicalised to a space: okay, I suppose
-    ' '
-    >>> sanitize_html('\u00a0')  # also nbsp
-    ' '
+    u' '
+    >>> sanitize_html(u'&nbsp;')  # canonicalised to a space: okay, I suppose
+    u' '
+    >>> sanitize_html(u'\u00a0')  # also nbsp
+    u' '
     '''
     if not tags:
         valid_url = '^((https?:\/\/|\/|mailto:).*?)'
@@ -412,24 +414,24 @@ def sanitize_fragment(html):
     are quoted, etc. Does not strip potentially-malicious HTML: use
     sanitize_html() for that.
 
-    >>> sanitize_fragment('<span lang="en">')
-    '<span lang="en"></span>'
-    >>> sanitize_fragment('<span lang=en></span>')
-    '<span lang="en"></span>'
-    >>> sanitize_fragment('<br><br/></br>')
-    '<br><br>'
-    >>> sanitize_fragment('<a href="javascript:alert()">foo</a>')
-    '<a href="javascript:alert()">foo</a>'
-    >>> sanitize_fragment('')
-    ''
-    >>> sanitize_fragment(' ')
-    ' '
-    >>> sanitize_fragment('&nbsp;')
-    '\\xa0'
-    >>> sanitize_fragment('\\u00a0')  # nbsp
-    '\\xa0'
-    >>> sanitize_fragment('\\ufeff')  # zero-width no-break space
-    '\\ufeff'
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u'<span lang="en">')
+    u'<span lang="en"></span>'
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u'<span lang=en></span>')
+    u'<span lang="en"></span>'
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u'<br><br/></br>')
+    u'<br><br>'
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u'<a href="javascript:alert()">foo</a>')
+    u'<a href="javascript:alert()">foo</a>'
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u'')
+    u''
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u' ')
+    u' '
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u'&nbsp;')
+    u'\\xa0'
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u'\\u00a0')  # nbsp
+    u'\\xa0'
+    >>> sanitize_fragment(u'\\ufeff')  # zero-width no-break space
+    u'\\ufeff'
     '''
 
     '''
@@ -440,12 +442,7 @@ def sanitize_fragment(html):
     if not html.strip():
         return html
     import lxml.html
-    try:
-        body = lxml.html.document_fromstring(html).find('body')
-    except lxml.etree.ParserError as e:
-        if e.args and e.args[0] == 'Document is empty':
-            return html
-        raise e
+    body = lxml.html.document_fromstring(html).find('body')
     html = lxml.html.tostring(body, encoding='utf-8')[6:-7].decode('utf-8')
     if html.startswith('<p>') and html.endswith('</p>'):
         html = html[3:-4]
diff --git a/ox/js.py b/ox/js.py
index 9e9f1cb..2f419bd 100644
--- a/ox/js.py
+++ b/ox/js.py
@@ -2,12 +2,19 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
 
+from six import PY2
 from .utils import json
 
 def minify(source, comment=''):
     # see https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSMin/blob/master/README
     def get_next_non_whitespace_token():
         pass
+    # python2 performance with unicode string is terrible
+    if PY2:
+        if isinstance(source, unicode):  # pylint: disable=undefined-variable
+            source = source.encode('utf-8')
+        if isinstance(comment, unicode):  # pylint: disable=undefined-variable
+            comment = comment.encode('utf-8')
     tokens = tokenize(source)
     length = len(tokens)
     minified = '/*' + comment + '*/' if comment else ''
diff --git a/ox/net.py b/ox/net.py
index 4d58bad..3a07d91 100644
--- a/ox/net.py
+++ b/ox/net.py
@@ -8,10 +8,13 @@ import os
 import re
 import struct
 
-import requests
-
-from io import BytesIO
-import urllib
+try:
+    import requests
+    USE_REQUESTS = True
+except:
+    USE_REQUESTS = False
+from six import BytesIO, PY2
+from six.moves import urllib
 from chardet.universaldetector import UniversalDetector
 
 
@@ -56,10 +59,14 @@ def get_json(url, data=None, headers=None):
 def open_url(url, data=None, headers=None):
     if headers is None:
         headers = DEFAULT_HEADERS.copy()
-    if isinstance(url, bytes):
-        url = url.decode('utf-8')
+    if PY2:
+        if not isinstance(url, bytes):
+            url = url.encode('utf-8')
+    else:
+        if isinstance(url, bytes):
+            url = url.decode('utf-8')
     url = url.replace(' ', '%20')
-    if data and not isinstance(data, bytes):
+    if data and not PY2 and not isinstance(data, bytes):
         data = data.encode('utf-8')
     req = urllib.request.Request(url, data, headers)
     return urllib.request.urlopen(req)
@@ -116,11 +123,16 @@ def save_url(url, filename, overwrite=False):
         if dirname and not os.path.exists(dirname):
             os.makedirs(dirname)
         headers = DEFAULT_HEADERS.copy()
-        r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, stream=True)
-        with open(filename, 'wb') as f:
-            for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size=1024):
-                if chunk:  # filter out keep-alive new chunks
-                    f.write(chunk)
+        if USE_REQUESTS:
+            r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, stream=True)
+            with open(filename, 'wb') as f:
+                for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size=1024):
+                    if chunk:  # filter out keep-alive new chunks
+                        f.write(chunk)
+        else:
+            data = read_url(url)
+            with open(filename, 'wb') as f:
+                f.write(data)
 
 def _get_size(url):
     req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers=DEFAULT_HEADERS.copy())
diff --git a/ox/normalize.py b/ox/normalize.py
index 4ee9293..dea40ae 100644
--- a/ox/normalize.py
+++ b/ox/normalize.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 import re
 import unicodedata
 
+from six import string_types
+
 
 _articles = ('the', 'la', 'a', 'die', 'der', 'le', 'el',
              "l'", 'il', 'das', 'les', 'o', 'ein', 'i', 'un', 'los', 'de',
@@ -101,7 +103,7 @@ def normalize_imdbid(imdbId):
     >>> normalize_imdbid('tt0159206')
     '0159206'
     """
-    if isinstance(imdbId, str):
+    if isinstance(imdbId, string_types):
         imdbId = re.sub('.*(\d{7}).*', '\\1', imdbId)
     elif isinstance(imdbId, int):
         imdbId = "%07d" % imdbId
diff --git a/ox/srt.py b/ox/srt.py
index 464c08e..c29ae8b 100644
--- a/ox/srt.py
+++ b/ox/srt.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import codecs
 import re
 
 import chardet
+from six import PY2
 import ox
 
 
@@ -23,7 +24,10 @@ def _detect_encoding(fp):
     # go to beginning of file and get the first 4 bytes
     oldFP = fp.tell()
     fp.seek(0)
-    (byte1, byte2, byte3, byte4) = fp.read(4)
+    if PY2:
+        (byte1, byte2, byte3, byte4) = [ord(b) for b in fp.read(4)]
+    else:
+        (byte1, byte2, byte3, byte4) = fp.read(4)
 
     # try bom detection using 4 bytes, 3 bytes, or 2 bytes
     bomDetection = bomDict.get((byte1, byte2, byte3, byte4))
diff --git a/ox/text.py b/ox/text.py
index d650262..282afa2 100644
--- a/ox/text.py
+++ b/ox/text.py
@@ -1,13 +1,11 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
 # GPL 2008
-import gzip
 import math
 import re
 import unicodedata
-from io import BytesIO
 
-from functools import reduce
+from six.moves import reduce
 
 ARTICLES = list(set([
     # def sg, def pl, indef sg, indef pl (each m/f/n)
@@ -475,10 +473,10 @@ def wrap(text, width):
 
 def wrap_string(string, length=80, separator='\n', balance=False):
     '''
-    >>> wrap_string("Anticonstitutionellement, Paris s'eveille", 16)
-    "Anticonstitution\\nellement, Paris \\ns'eveille"
+    >>> wrap_string(u"Anticonstitutionellement, Paris s'eveille", 16)
+    u"Anticonstitution\\nellement, Paris \\ns'eveille"
     >>> wrap_string(u'All you can eat', 12, '\\n', True)
-    'All you \\ncan eat'
+    u'All you \\ncan eat'
     '''
     words = string.split(' ')
     if balance:
@@ -493,20 +491,20 @@ def wrap_string(string, length=80, separator='\n', balance=False):
                     break
     lines = ['']
     for word in words:
-        if len(lines[len(lines) - 1] + word + ' ') <= length + 1:
+        if len(lines[len(lines) - 1] + word + u' ') <= length + 1:
             # word fits in current line
-            lines[len(lines) - 1] += word + ' '
+            lines[len(lines) - 1] += word + u' '
         else:
             if len(word) <= length:
                 # word fits in next line
-                lines.append(word + ' ')
+                lines.append(word + u' ')
             else:
                 # word is longer than line
                 position = length - len(lines[len(lines) - 1])
                 lines[len(lines) - 1] += word[0:position]
                 for i in range(position, len(word), length):
                     lines.append(word[i:i+length])
-                lines[len(lines) - 1] += ' '
+                lines[len(lines) - 1] += u' '
     return separator.join(lines).strip()
 
 def truncate_string(string, length, padding='...', position='right'):
@@ -578,14 +576,14 @@ def get_valid_filename(s):
 
 def get_text_list(list_, last_word='or'):
     """
-    >>> get_text_list(['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
-    'a, b, c or d'
-    >>> get_text_list(['a', 'b', 'c'], 'and')
-    'a, b and c'
-    >>> get_text_list(['a', 'b'], 'and')
-    'a and b'
-    >>> get_text_list(['a'])
-    'a'
+    >>> get_text_list([u'a', u'b', u'c', u'd'])
+    u'a, b, c or d'
+    >>> get_text_list([u'a', u'b', u'c'], 'and')
+    u'a, b and c'
+    >>> get_text_list([u'a', u'b'], 'and')
+    u'a and b'
+    >>> get_text_list([u'a'])
+    u'a'
     >>> get_text_list([])
     ''
     """
@@ -593,24 +591,24 @@ def get_text_list(list_, last_word='or'):
         return ''
     if len(list_) == 1:
         return list_[0]
-    return '%s %s %s' % (', '.join([i for i in list_][:-1]), last_word, list_[-1])
+    return u'%s %s %s' % (u', '.join([i for i in list_][:-1]), last_word, list_[-1])
 
 def get_list_text(text, last_word='or'):
     """
-    >>> get_list_text('a, b, c or d')
-    ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']
-    >>> get_list_text('a, b and c', 'and')
-    ['a', 'b', 'c']
-    >>> get_list_text('a and b', 'and')
-    ['a', 'b']
-    >>> get_list_text('a')
-    ['a']
-    >>> get_list_text('')
+    >>> get_list_text(u'a, b, c or d')
+    [u'a', u'b', u'c', u'd']
+    >>> get_list_text(u'a, b and c', u'and')
+    [u'a', u'b', u'c']
+    >>> get_list_text(u'a and b', u'and')
+    [u'a', u'b']
+    >>> get_list_text(u'a')
+    [u'a']
+    >>> get_list_text(u'')
     []
     """
     list_ = []
     if text:
-        list_ = text.split(', ')
+        list_ = text.split(u', ')
         if list_:
             i = len(list_)-1
             last = list_[i].split(last_word)
@@ -648,6 +646,8 @@ def phone2numeric(phone):
     return letters.sub(char2number, phone)
 
 def compress_string(s):
+    import gzip
+    from six import BytesIO
     zbuf = BytesIO()
     zfile = gzip.GzipFile(mode='wb', compresslevel=6, fileobj=zbuf)
     zfile.write(s)
@@ -682,7 +682,7 @@ def words(text):
     return [re.sub("(([.!?:-_]|'s)$)", '', x) for x in text]
 
 def sort_string(string):
-    string = string.replace('Æ', 'AE').replace('Ø', 'O').replace('Þ', 'Th')
+    string = string.replace(u'Æ', 'AE').replace(u'Ø', 'O').replace(u'Þ', 'Th')
 
     # pad numbered titles
     string = re.sub('(\d),(\d{3})', '\\1\\2', string)
diff --git a/ox/torrent/__init__.py b/ox/torrent/__init__.py
index 9c399fe..a250215 100644
--- a/ox/torrent/__init__.py
+++ b/ox/torrent/__init__.py
@@ -5,8 +5,12 @@
 from threading import Event
 from hashlib import sha1
 import os
+from six import PY2
 
-from .bencode3 import bencode, bdecode
+if PY2:
+    from .bencode import bencode, bdecode
+else:
+    from .bencode3 import bencode, bdecode
 
 __all__ = ['create_torrent', 'get_info_hash', 'get_torrent_info', 'get_files', 'get_torrent_size']
 
diff --git a/ox/torrent/bencode.py b/ox/torrent/bencode.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b586001
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ox/torrent/bencode.py
@@ -0,0 +1,321 @@
+# Written by Petru Paler, Uoti Urpala, Ross Cohen and John Hoffman
+# see LICENSE.txt for license information
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+from types import IntType, LongType, StringType, ListType, TupleType, DictType
+try:
+    from types import BooleanType
+except ImportError:
+    BooleanType = None
+try:
+    from types import UnicodeType
+except ImportError:
+    UnicodeType = None
+from cStringIO import StringIO
+
+def decode_int(x, f):
+    f += 1
+    newf = x.index('e', f)
+    try:
+        n = int(x[f:newf])
+    except:
+        n = long(x[f:newf])
+    if x[f] == '-':
+        if x[f + 1] == '0':
+            raise ValueError
+    elif x[f] == '0' and newf != f+1:
+        raise ValueError
+    return (n, newf+1)
+  
+def decode_string(x, f):
+    colon = x.index(':', f)
+    try:
+        n = int(x[f:colon])
+    except (OverflowError, ValueError):
+        n = long(x[f:colon])
+    if x[f] == '0' and colon != f+1:
+        raise ValueError
+    colon += 1
+    return (x[colon:colon+n], colon+n)
+
+def decode_unicode(x, f):
+    s, f = decode_string(x, f+1)
+    return (s.decode('UTF-8'),f)
+
+def decode_list(x, f):
+    r, f = [], f+1
+    while x[f] != 'e':
+        v, f = decode_func[x[f]](x, f)
+        r.append(v)
+    return (r, f + 1)
+
+def decode_dict(x, f):
+    r, f = {}, f+1
+    lastkey = None
+    while x[f] != 'e':
+        k, f = decode_string(x, f)
+        #  why is this needed
+        #  if lastkey >= k:
+        #    raise ValueError
+        lastkey = k
+        r[k], f = decode_func[x[f]](x, f)
+    return (r, f + 1)
+
+decode_func = {}
+decode_func['l'] = decode_list
+decode_func['d'] = decode_dict
+decode_func['i'] = decode_int
+decode_func['0'] = decode_string
+decode_func['1'] = decode_string
+decode_func['2'] = decode_string
+decode_func['3'] = decode_string
+decode_func['4'] = decode_string
+decode_func['5'] = decode_string
+decode_func['6'] = decode_string
+decode_func['7'] = decode_string
+decode_func['8'] = decode_string
+decode_func['9'] = decode_string
+#decode_func['u'] = decode_unicode
+  
+def bdecode(x, sloppy = 1):
+    try:
+        r, l = decode_func[x[0]](x, 0)
+#    except (IndexError, KeyError):
+    except (IndexError, KeyError, ValueError):
+        raise ValueError("bad bencoded data")
+    if not sloppy and l != len(x):
+        raise ValueError("bad bencoded data")
+    return r
+
+def test_bdecode():
+    try:
+        bdecode('0:0:')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('ie')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('i341foo382e')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    assert bdecode('i4e') == 4
+    assert bdecode('i0e') == 0
+    assert bdecode('i123456789e') == 123456789
+    assert bdecode('i-10e') == -10
+    try:
+        bdecode('i-0e')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('i123')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('i6easd')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('35208734823ljdahflajhdf')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('2:abfdjslhfld')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    assert bdecode('0:') == ''
+    assert bdecode('3:abc') == 'abc'
+    assert bdecode('10:1234567890') == '1234567890'
+    try:
+        bdecode('02:xy')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('l')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    assert bdecode('le') == []
+    try:
+        bdecode('leanfdldjfh')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    assert bdecode('l0:0:0:e') == ['', '', '']
+    try:
+        bdecode('relwjhrlewjh')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    assert bdecode('li1ei2ei3ee') == [1, 2, 3]
+    assert bdecode('l3:asd2:xye') == ['asd', 'xy']
+    assert bdecode('ll5:Alice3:Bobeli2ei3eee') == [['Alice', 'Bob'], [2, 3]]
+    try:
+        bdecode('d')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('defoobar')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    assert bdecode('de') == {}
+    assert bdecode('d3:agei25e4:eyes4:bluee') == {'age': 25, 'eyes': 'blue'}
+    assert bdecode('d8:spam.mp3d6:author5:Alice6:lengthi100000eee') == {'spam.mp3': {'author': 'Alice', 'length': 100000}}
+    try:
+        bdecode('d3:fooe')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('di1e0:e')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('d1:b0:1:a0:e')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('d1:a0:1:a0:e')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('i03e')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('l01:ae')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('9999:x')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('l0:')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('d0:0:')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        bdecode('d0:')
+        assert 0
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+
+bencached_marker = []
+
+class Bencached:
+    def __init__(self, s):
+        self.marker = bencached_marker
+        self.bencoded = s
+
+BencachedType = type(Bencached('')) # insufficient, but good as a filter
+
+def encode_bencached(x,r):
+    assert x.marker == bencached_marker
+    r.append(x.bencoded)
+
+def encode_int(x,r):
+    r.extend(('i',str(x),'e'))
+
+def encode_bool(x,r):
+    encode_int(int(x),r)
+
+def encode_string(x,r):    
+    r.extend((str(len(x)),':',x))
+
+def encode_unicode(x,r):
+    #r.append('u')
+    encode_string(x.encode('UTF-8'),r)
+
+def encode_list(x,r):
+        r.append('l')
+        for e in x:
+            encode_func[type(e)](e, r)
+        r.append('e')
+
+def encode_dict(x,r):
+    r.append('d')
+    ilist = x.items()
+    ilist.sort()
+    for k,v in ilist:
+        r.extend((str(len(k)),':',k))
+        encode_func[type(v)](v, r)
+    r.append('e')
+
+encode_func = {}
+encode_func[BencachedType] = encode_bencached
+encode_func[IntType] = encode_int
+encode_func[LongType] = encode_int
+encode_func[StringType] = encode_string
+encode_func[ListType] = encode_list
+encode_func[TupleType] = encode_list
+encode_func[DictType] = encode_dict
+if BooleanType:
+    encode_func[BooleanType] = encode_bool
+if UnicodeType:
+    encode_func[UnicodeType] = encode_unicode
+    
+def bencode(x):
+    r = []
+    try:
+        encode_func[type(x)](x, r)
+    except:
+        print("*** error *** could not encode type %s (value: %s)" % (type(x), x))
+        assert 0
+    return ''.join(r)
+
+def test_bencode():
+    assert bencode(4) == 'i4e'
+    assert bencode(0) == 'i0e'
+    assert bencode(-10) == 'i-10e'
+    assert bencode(12345678901234567890) == 'i12345678901234567890e'
+    assert bencode('') == '0:'
+    assert bencode('abc') == '3:abc'
+    assert bencode('1234567890') == '10:1234567890'
+    assert bencode([]) == 'le'
+    assert bencode([1, 2, 3]) == 'li1ei2ei3ee'
+    assert bencode([['Alice', 'Bob'], [2, 3]]) == 'll5:Alice3:Bobeli2ei3eee'
+    assert bencode({}) == 'de'
+    assert bencode({'age': 25, 'eyes': 'blue'}) == 'd3:agei25e4:eyes4:bluee'
+    assert bencode({'spam.mp3': {'author': 'Alice', 'length': 100000}}) == 'd8:spam.mp3d6:author5:Alice6:lengthi100000eee'
+    try:
+        bencode({1: 'foo'})
+        assert 0
+    except AssertionError:
+        pass
+
+  
+try:
+    import psyco
+    psyco.bind(bdecode)
+    psyco.bind(bencode)
+except ImportError:
+    pass
diff --git a/ox/torrent/makemetafile.py b/ox/torrent/makemetafile.py
index c2db27a..31d6ebe 100644
--- a/ox/torrent/makemetafile.py
+++ b/ox/torrent/makemetafile.py
@@ -8,7 +8,11 @@ from hashlib import sha1 as sha
 from copy import copy
 import re
 
-from .bencode3 import bencode
+from six import PY2
+if PY2:
+    from .bencode import bencode
+else:
+    from .bencode3 import bencode
 from threading import Event
 from time import time
 from traceback import print_exc
diff --git a/ox/web/allmovie.py b/ox/web/allmovie.py
index c94c438..fdb7a46 100644
--- a/ox/web/allmovie.py
+++ b/ox/web/allmovie.py
@@ -13,13 +13,13 @@ def get_id(url):
 def get_data(id):
     '''
     >>> get_data('129689')['cast'][1][1]
-    'Marianne'
+    u'Marianne'
     >>> get_data('129689')['credits'][0][0]
-    'Jean-Luc Godard'
+    u'Jean-Luc Godard'
     >>> get_data('129689')['posters'][0]
-    'http://image.allmusic.com/00/adg/cov200/dru800/u812/u81260bbffr.jpg'
+    u'http://image.allmusic.com/00/adg/cov200/dru800/u812/u81260bbffr.jpg'
     >>> get_data('129689')['rating']
-    '4.5'
+    u'4.5'
     '''
     if id.startswith('http'):
         id = get_id(id)
diff --git a/ox/web/amazon.py b/ox/web/amazon.py
index d721d5c..19a72c7 100644
--- a/ox/web/amazon.py
+++ b/ox/web/amazon.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
 from __future__ import print_function
 import re
-from urllib.parse import quote
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import quote
 
 from ox import find_re, strip_tags, decode_html
 from ox.cache import read_url
diff --git a/ox/web/apple.py b/ox/web/apple.py
index 84abba0..099d6cb 100644
--- a/ox/web/apple.py
+++ b/ox/web/apple.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 import json
 import re
 
+from six import text_type
 from ox.cache import read_url
 
 HEADERS = {
@@ -16,9 +17,9 @@ USER_AGENT = 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7) '
 USER_AGENT += 'AppleWebKit/534.48.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Safari/534.48.3'
 
 def get_movie_data(title, director):
-    if isinstance(title, str):
+    if isinstance(title, text_type):
         title = title.encode('utf-8')
-    if isinstance(director, str):
+    if isinstance(director, text_type):
         director = director.encode('utf-8')
     data = {}
     # itunes section (preferred source for link)
diff --git a/ox/web/archive.py b/ox/web/archive.py
index 3e7ab47..0c733c3 100644
--- a/ox/web/archive.py
+++ b/ox/web/archive.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 from .. import cache
 from ..utils import json
 
+from six import string_types
+
 def get_id(url):
     return url.split("/")[-1]
 
@@ -19,7 +21,7 @@ def get_data(id):
             data[key] = details['metadata'][key]
             if isinstance(data[key], list):
                 data[key] = data[key][0]
-            if isinstance(data[key], str):
+            if isinstance(data[key], string_types):
                 data[key] = data[key].strip()
                 if data[key][0] == '[' and data[key][-1] == ']':
                     data[key] = data[key][1:-1] 
diff --git a/ox/web/arsenalberlin.py b/ox/web/arsenalberlin.py
index ca77b5e..e5a0dd2 100644
--- a/ox/web/arsenalberlin.py
+++ b/ox/web/arsenalberlin.py
@@ -19,18 +19,18 @@ def get_data(id, language='en'):
     if 'Willkommen in der Datenbank des Arsenal' in html:
         return None
     data = {}
-    data['id'] = id
-    data['url'] = url
+    data[u'id'] = id
+    data[u'url'] = url
     m = re.compile('<h1>(.*?)</h1>').findall(html)
     if m:
-        data['title'] = m[0]
+        data[u'title'] = m[0]
     m = re.compile("<b>Director: </b><a href='.*?'>(.*?)</a>").findall(html)
     if m:
-        data['director'] = m[0]
+        data[u'director'] = m[0]
 
     m = re.compile("caUI.initImageScroller\(\[\{url:'(.*?)'").findall(html)
     if m:
-        data['image'] = m[0]
+        data[u'image'] = m[0]
 
     units = re.compile("<div class='unit'>(.*?)</div>", re.DOTALL).findall(html)
     for x in map(re.compile('<b>(.*?)</b>: (.*)', re.DOTALL).findall, units):
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ def get_data(id, language='en'):
             else:
                 data[key] = strip_tags(data[key])
     if "running time (minutes)" in data:
-        data['runtime'] = float(data.pop("running time (minutes)").replace(',', '.')) * 60
+        data[u'runtime'] = float(data.pop("running time (minutes)").replace(',', '.')) * 60
     for key in ('year', 'length in metres', 'forum participation year', 'number of reels'):
         if key in data and data[key].isdigit():
             data[key] = int(data[key])
diff --git a/ox/web/criterion.py b/ox/web/criterion.py
index 67d4a8a..d7914be 100644
--- a/ox/web/criterion.py
+++ b/ox/web/criterion.py
@@ -19,13 +19,13 @@ def get_url(id):
 def get_data(id, timeout=ox.cache.cache_timeout, get_imdb=False):
     '''
     >>> get_data('1333').get('imdbId')
-    '0060304'
+    u'0060304'
 
     >>> get_data('236')['posters'][0]
-    'http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/release_images/1586/ThirdManReplace.jpg'
+    u'http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/release_images/1586/ThirdManReplace.jpg'
 
     >>> get_data('786')['posters'][0]
-    'http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/product_images/185/343_box_348x490.jpg'
+    u'http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/product_images/185/343_box_348x490.jpg'
     '''
     data = {
         "id": id,
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ def get_data(id, timeout=ox.cache.cache_timeout, get_imdb=False):
     data["number"] = find_re(html, "<b>Spine #(\d+)")
 
     data["title"] = decode_html(find_re(html, "<h1 class=\"header__primarytitle\".*?>(.*?)</h1>"))
-    data["title"] = data["title"].split(' \u2014 The Television Version')[0].strip()
+    data["title"] = data["title"].split(u' \u2014 The Television Version')[0].strip()
     results = find_re(html, '<ul class="film-meta-list">(.*?)</ul>')
     info = re.compile('<li itemprop="(.*?)".*?>(.*?)</li>', re.DOTALL).findall(results)
     info = {k: strip_tags(v).strip() for k, v in info}
diff --git a/ox/web/dailymotion.py b/ox/web/dailymotion.py
index 851b728..0ec8d86 100644
--- a/ox/web/dailymotion.py
+++ b/ox/web/dailymotion.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
 import re
-from urllib.parse import unquote
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import unquote
 from ox.cache import read_url
 
 
diff --git a/ox/web/duckduckgo.py b/ox/web/duckduckgo.py
index 35c0602..b4b3494 100644
--- a/ox/web/duckduckgo.py
+++ b/ox/web/duckduckgo.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
 import re
 
-import urllib
+from six.moves import urllib
 import ox
 from ox import strip_tags, decode_html
 from ox.cache import read_url
diff --git a/ox/web/flixter.py b/ox/web/flixter.py
index d713208..e6d6a0a 100644
--- a/ox/web/flixter.py
+++ b/ox/web/flixter.py
@@ -58,10 +58,10 @@ def get_data(id, timeout=-1):
 def get_id(url=None, imdb=None):
     '''
     >>> get_id(imdb='0133093')
-    'the-matrix'
+    u'the-matrix'
 
     #>>> get_id(imdb='0060304')
-    #'2-or-3-things-i-know-about-her'
+    #u'2-or-3-things-i-know-about-her'
     '''
     if imdb:
         i = ImdbCombined(imdb)
diff --git a/ox/web/google.py b/ox/web/google.py
index 01bb7ce..0842d01 100644
--- a/ox/web/google.py
+++ b/ox/web/google.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
 import re
-import urllib
+from six.moves import urllib
 
 import ox
 from ox import strip_tags, decode_html
diff --git a/ox/web/imdb.py b/ox/web/imdb.py
index 4b08cab..96454f7 100644
--- a/ox/web/imdb.py
+++ b/ox/web/imdb.py
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ import re
 import time
 import unicodedata
 
-from urllib.parse import urlencode
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import urlencode
+from six import string_types
 
 from .. import find_re, strip_tags, decode_html
 from .. import cache
@@ -448,7 +449,7 @@ class Imdb(SiteParser):
 
         if 'alternativeTitles' in self:
             if len(self['alternativeTitles']) == 2 and \
-               isinstance(self['alternativeTitles'][0], str):
+               isinstance(self['alternativeTitles'][0], string_types):
                self['alternativeTitles'] = [self['alternativeTitles']]
 
         for key in ('country', 'genre', 'language', 'sound', 'color'):
@@ -513,7 +514,7 @@ class Imdb(SiteParser):
             self['sound'] = list(sorted(set(self['sound'])))
 
         if 'cast' in self:
-            if isinstance(self['cast'][0], str):
+            if isinstance(self['cast'][0], string_types):
                 self['cast'] = [self['cast']]
             self['actor'] = [c[0] for c in self['cast']]
             def cleanup_character(c):
diff --git a/ox/web/itunes.py b/ox/web/itunes.py
index bb85952..f599099 100644
--- a/ox/web/itunes.py
+++ b/ox/web/itunes.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # encoding: utf-8
 from __future__ import print_function
 import re
-from urllib.parse import urlencode
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import urlencode
 
 from ox.cache import read_url
 from ox.html import decode_html, strip_tags
diff --git a/ox/web/metacritic.py b/ox/web/metacritic.py
index 8c59998..2ecded5 100644
--- a/ox/web/metacritic.py
+++ b/ox/web/metacritic.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
 import re
 
-from urllib.parse import quote
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import quote
 from lxml.html import document_fromstring
 
 from ox.cache import read_url
diff --git a/ox/web/siteparser.py b/ox/web/siteparser.py
index b260be6..b8b78f8 100644
--- a/ox/web/siteparser.py
+++ b/ox/web/siteparser.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ import re
 import json
 from multiprocessing.pool import ThreadPool
 
+from six import string_types
+
 from ..cache import read_url
 from .. import decode_html
 from ..utils import datetime
@@ -11,15 +13,15 @@ from ..utils import datetime
 
 def cleanup(key, data, data_type):
     if data:
-        if isinstance(data[0], str):
+        if isinstance(data[0], string_types):
             #FIXME: some types need strip_tags
             #data = [strip_tags(decode_html(p)).strip() for p in data]
             data = [decode_html(p).strip() for p in data]
         elif isinstance(data[0], list) or isinstance(data[0], tuple):
             data = [cleanup(key, p, data_type) for p in data]
-        while len(data) == 1 and not isinstance(data, str):
+        while len(data) == 1 and not isinstance(data, string_types):
             data = data[0]
-        if data_type == 'list' and isinstance(data, str):
+        if data_type == 'list' and isinstance(data, string_types):
             data = [data, ]
     elif data_type != 'list':
         data = ''
@@ -47,7 +49,7 @@ class SiteParser(dict):
         for key in self.regex:
             url = self.get_url(self.regex[key]['page'])
             data = self.read_url(url, timeout)
-            if isinstance(self.regex[key]['re'], str):
+            if isinstance(self.regex[key]['re'], string_types):
                 data = re.compile(self.regex[key]['re'], re.DOTALL).findall(data)
                 data = cleanup(key, data, self.regex[key]['type'])
             elif callable(self.regex[key]['re']):
@@ -58,7 +60,7 @@ class SiteParser(dict):
                         f = r
                     else:
                         f = re.compile(r, re.DOTALL).findall
-                    if isinstance(data, str):
+                    if isinstance(data, string_types):
                         data = f(data)
                     else:
                         data = [f(d) for d in data]
diff --git a/ox/web/startpage.py b/ox/web/startpage.py
index 83e92f9..ca18437 100644
--- a/ox/web/startpage.py
+++ b/ox/web/startpage.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
-import urllib
+from six.moves import urllib
 
 import lxml.html
 import ox
diff --git a/ox/web/thepiratebay.py b/ox/web/thepiratebay.py
index cbbdf56..e9a6445 100644
--- a/ox/web/thepiratebay.py
+++ b/ox/web/thepiratebay.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 from datetime import datetime
 import re
 
-from urllib.parse import quote
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import quote
 
 from ox import find_re, cache, strip_tags, decode_html, get_torrent_info, normalize_newlines
 from ox.normalize import normalize_imdbid
diff --git a/ox/web/twitter.py b/ox/web/twitter.py
index 619c458..fa33bfc 100644
--- a/ox/web/twitter.py
+++ b/ox/web/twitter.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
 import re
 from datetime import datetime
-from urllib.parse import quote
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import quote
 
 import lxml.html
 import ox
diff --git a/ox/web/wikipedia.py b/ox/web/wikipedia.py
index 5d86655..de8b064 100644
--- a/ox/web/wikipedia.py
+++ b/ox/web/wikipedia.py
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 
 import re
 
-import urllib
+from six.moves import urllib
+from six import string_types
 
 from ox.utils import json
 from ox.cache import read_url
@@ -68,7 +69,7 @@ def get_movie_data(wikipedia_url):
                     value = value.split('<br>')
                 if value:
                     if key in filmbox:
-                        if isinstance(value, list) and isinstance(filmbox[key], str):
+                        if isinstance(value, list) and isinstance(filmbox[key], string_types):
                             filmbox[key] = [filmbox[key]] + value
                         else:
                             filmbox[key] += value
diff --git a/ox/web/youtube.py b/ox/web/youtube.py
index 0f59b80..805f716 100644
--- a/ox/web/youtube.py
+++ b/ox/web/youtube.py
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
-from urllib.parse import quote, unquote_plus
-import urllib
-from http import cookiejar as cookielib
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import quote, unquote_plus
+from six.moves import urllib
+from six.moves import http_cookiejar as cookielib
 import re
 from xml.dom.minidom import parseString
 import json
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index f30c448..4e7d966 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 chardet
+six>=1.5.2
 lxml
 requests
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b1d1de5..e5948ea 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,10 +7,9 @@ try:
 except:
     from distutils.core import setup
 
-def get_git_version():
+def get_revision():
     import subprocess
-    version = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'describe', '--tags']).decode().strip().replace('-', '.')
-    return '.'.join((version.split('.') + ['0'])[:3])
+    return subprocess.check_output(['git', 'rev-list', 'HEAD', '--count']).decode().strip()
 
 def get_version():
     import os
@@ -19,8 +18,9 @@ def get_version():
     __version = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'ox/__version.py')
     changelog = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'debian/changelog')
     if os.path.exists(_git):
-        version = get_git_version()
-        if version:
+        rev = get_revision()
+        if rev:
+            version = "2.3.%s" % rev
             with open(__version, 'w') as fd:
                 fd.write('VERSION="%s"' % version)
             return version
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ def get_version():
         f.close()
         rev = re.compile('\d+\.\d+\.(\d+)').findall(head)
         if rev:
-            return '3.0.%s' % rev[0]
-    return '3.0.x'
+            return '2.3.%s' % rev[0]
+    return '2.3.x'
 
 
 setup(
@@ -50,18 +50,17 @@ setup(
     url="https://code.0x2620.org/0x2620/python-ox",
     license="GPLv3",
     packages=['ox', 'ox.torrent', 'ox.web'],
-    install_requires=['chardet'],
+    install_requires=['six>=1.5.2', 'chardet'],
     keywords=[
     ],
     classifiers=[
         'Operating System :: OS Independent',
         'Programming Language :: Python',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7',
         'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.4',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5',
         'Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules',
     ],
 )