diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ad74471..15cfe2a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,13 +7,13 @@ https://github.com/pypa/sampleproject
 
 from setuptools import setup
 # To use a consistent encoding
-from codecs import open
+from codecs import open as codecopen
 from os import path
 
 here = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))
 
 # Get the long description from the relevant file
-with open(path.join(here, 'README.rst'), encoding='utf-8') as f:
+with codecopen(path.join(here, 'README.rst'), encoding='utf-8') as f:
     long_description = f.read()
 
 setup(