diff --git a/pelican/readers.py b/pelican/readers.py
index e3ea154d..30038f7a 100644
--- a/pelican/readers.py
+++ b/pelican/readers.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ except ImportError:
 import re
 
 from pelican.contents import Category, Tag, Author
-from pelican.utils import get_date, open
+from pelican.utils import get_date, pelican_open
 
 
 _METADATA_PROCESSORS = {
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ class MarkdownReader(Reader):
 
     def read(self, filename):
         """Parse content and metadata of markdown files"""
-        text = open(filename)
+        text = pelican_open(filename)
         md = Markdown(extensions=set(self.extensions + ['meta']))
         content = md.convert(text)
 
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ class HtmlReader(Reader):
 
     def read(self, filename):
         """Parse content and metadata of (x)HTML files"""
-        with open(filename) as content:
+        with pelican_open(filename) as content:
             metadata = {'title': 'unnamed'}
             for i in self._re.findall(content):
                 key = i.split(':')[0][5:].strip()
diff --git a/pelican/utils.py b/pelican/utils.py
index ca3015ce..60ecee34 100644
--- a/pelican/utils.py
+++ b/pelican/utils.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import shutil
 import logging
 from collections import defaultdict
 
-from codecs import open as _open
+from codecs import open
 from datetime import datetime
 from itertools import groupby
 from jinja2 import Markup
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ from operator import attrgetter
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+
 class NoFilesError(Exception):
     pass
 
@@ -37,9 +38,9 @@ def get_date(string):
     raise ValueError("'%s' is not a valid date" % string)
 
 
-def open(filename):
+def pelican_open(filename):
     """Open a file and return it's content"""
-    return _open(filename, encoding='utf-8').read()
+    return open(filename, encoding='utf-8').read()
 
 
 def slugify(value):