diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b753e96..0fe9318 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,13 +5,10 @@
 
 import glob
 import re
-import sys
 import os
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
-from distutils.command.build import build as _build
 from distutils.command.sdist import sdist
-from distutils.cmd import Command
 
 class eo_sdist(sdist):
 
@@ -31,6 +28,11 @@ class eo_sdist(sdist):
 def get_version():
 
     version = None
+    if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
+        version_file = open('VERSION', 'r')
+        version = version_file.read()
+        version_file.close()
+        return version
     for d in glob.glob('*'):
         if not os.path.isdir(d):
             continue