diff --git a/README.mkd b/README.mkd
index dd6e932..eab7ea7 100644
--- a/README.mkd
+++ b/README.mkd
@@ -26,3 +26,11 @@ The following example shows you how to import an image from somewhere on the int
 
     result = client.request(**params)
     print result
+
+
+## Installing on Python 2.6 or older
+The package depends on the ``json`` module added in Python 2.7, but we fall
+back to importing ``simplejson`` if ``json`` is not available. To make
+``python-transloadit`` to work in Python 2.6 or older, install ``simplejson``:
+
+    $ pip install simplejson
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8dd4c6c..4808db4 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,14 +3,13 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
 setup(name="transloadit",
-      version="0.0.1",
+      version="0.0.5",
       description="Library for interfacing with Transloadit's API",
       author="Joe Stump",
       author_email="joe@joestump.net",
       url="http://github.com/joestump/python-transloadit",
       packages = find_packages(),
       license = "MIT License",
-      install_requires=['simplejson>=2.1.6'],
       keywords="transloadit",
       zip_safe = True,
       tests_require=['nose', 'coverage'])
diff --git a/transloadit/client.py b/transloadit/client.py
index 970a7cc..acda21b 100644
--- a/transloadit/client.py
+++ b/transloadit/client.py
@@ -12,9 +12,12 @@
 
 
 try:
-    from django.utils import simplejson as json
-except ImportError:
+    # Should be (manually) installed if using Python 2.6 or older,
+    # or if you want the speedup for raw bytestrings provided by
+    # simplejson.
     import simplejson as json
+except ImportError:
+    import json # Works with python 2.7+
 
 
 BASE_API = 'http://api2.transloadit.com/assemblies'
@@ -45,7 +48,15 @@ def _send_request(self, files, **fields):
         req.endheaders()
         req.send(body)
         errcode, errmsg, headers = req.getreply()
-        return json.loads(req.file.read())
+        output = req.file.read()
+        try:
+            return json.loads(output)
+        except json.JSONDecodeError:
+            # Workaround for https://github.com/joestump/python-transloadit/issues/5
+            output = '{' + output.split('{', 1)[-1]
+            output = output.rsplit('}', 1)[0] + '}'
+            return json.loads(output)
+
 
     def _encode_request(self, fields, files):
         body = StringIO()