diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 708a7e4..dbdc048 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ Modules/
 * removed unused code schema.c
 
 Lib/
+* ldap.__version__, ldap.__author__ and ldap.__license__ now
+  imported from new sub-module ldap.pkginfo also to setup.py
 * removed stand-alone module dsml
 * slapdtest.SlapdObject.restart() just restarts slapd
   without cleaning any data
diff --git a/Lib/ldap/__init__.py b/Lib/ldap/__init__.py
index af83b6c..e679de5 100644
--- a/Lib/ldap/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/ldap/__init__.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 # This is also the overall release version number
 
-__version__ = '2.5.0'
+from pkginfo import __version__, __author__, __license__
 
 import sys
 
diff --git a/Lib/ldap/pkginfo.py b/Lib/ldap/pkginfo.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6218b9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/ldap/pkginfo.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+"""
+meta attributes for packaging which does not import any dependencies
+"""
+__version__ = '2.5.0'
+__author__ = u'python-ldap project'
+__license__ = 'Python style'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 9e625ff..329de0c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -14,20 +14,8 @@
 from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
 import sys,os,string,time
 
-##################################################################
-# Weird Hack to grab release version of python-ldap from local dir
-##################################################################
-exec_startdir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0]))
-package_init_file_name = reduce(os.path.join,[exec_startdir,'Lib','ldap','__init__.py'])
-f = open(package_init_file_name,'r')
-s = f.readline()
-while s:
-  s = string.strip(s)
-  if s[0:11]=='__version__':
-    version = eval(string.split(s,'=')[1])
-    break
-  s = f.readline()
-f.close()
+sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'Lib/ldap'))
+import pkginfo
 
 #-- A class describing the features and requirements of OpenLDAP 2.0
 class OpenLDAP2:
@@ -78,7 +66,8 @@ class OpenLDAP2:
 setup(
   #-- Package description
   name = name,
-  version = version,
+  license=pkginfo.__license__,
+  version=pkginfo.__version__,
   description = 'Python modules for implementing LDAP clients',
   long_description = """python-ldap:
   python-ldap provides an object-oriented API to access LDAP directory servers
@@ -87,7 +76,7 @@ class OpenLDAP2:
   (e.g. processing LDIF, LDAPURLs, LDAPv3 schema, LDAPv3 extended operations
   and controls, etc.). 
   """,
-  author = 'python-ldap project',
+  author = pkginfo.__author__,
   author_email = 'python-ldap@python.org',
   url = 'https://www.python-ldap.org/',
   download_url = 'https://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-ldap/',
@@ -108,7 +97,6 @@ class OpenLDAP2:
     'Topic :: System :: Systems Administration :: Authentication/Directory :: LDAP',
     'License :: OSI Approved :: Python Software Foundation License',
   ],
-  license = 'Python style',
   #-- C extension modules
   ext_modules = [
     Extension(
@@ -137,7 +125,7 @@ class OpenLDAP2:
         ('ldap_r' in LDAP_CLASS.libs or 'oldap_r' in LDAP_CLASS.libs)*[('HAVE_LIBLDAP_R',None)] + \
         ('sasl' in LDAP_CLASS.libs or 'sasl2' in LDAP_CLASS.libs or 'libsasl' in LDAP_CLASS.libs)*[('HAVE_SASL',None)] + \
         ('ssl' in LDAP_CLASS.libs and 'crypto' in LDAP_CLASS.libs)*[('HAVE_TLS',None)] + \
-        [('LDAPMODULE_VERSION', version)]
+        [('LDAPMODULE_VERSION', pkginfo.__version__)]
     ),
   ],
   #-- Python "stand alone" modules