diff --git a/isso/utils/__init__.py b/isso/utils/__init__.py
index 09af650..d707b99 100644
--- a/isso/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/isso/utils/__init__.py
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 from __future__ import division
 
+import pkg_resources
+werkzeug = pkg_resources.get_distribution("werkzeug")
+
 import json
 import random
 import hashlib
@@ -91,6 +94,10 @@ class Bloomfilter:
 
 class JSONRequest(Request):
 
+    if werkzeug.version.startswith("0.8"):
+        def get_data(self):
+            return self.data.decode('utf-8')
+
     def get_json(self):
         try:
             return json.loads(self.get_data().decode('utf-8'))
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fbfa31f..e9c4551 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,13 +5,15 @@ import sys
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
-requires = ['werkzeug>=0.9', 'itsdangerous', 'misaka', 'html5lib']
+requires = ['itsdangerous', 'misaka', 'html5lib']
 
 if (3, 0) <= sys.version_info < (3, 3):
     raise SystemExit("Python 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 are not supported")
 
 if sys.version_info < (3, 0):
-    requires += ['ipaddress', 'configparser']
+    requires += ['ipaddress', 'configparser', 'werkzeug>=0.8']
+else:
+    requires += ['werkzeug>=0.9']
 
 setup(
     name='isso',