diff --git a/bindings/python/src/alert.cpp b/bindings/python/src/alert.cpp
index 1d15c5569..7a3f3223d 100644
--- a/bindings/python/src/alert.cpp
+++ b/bindings/python/src/alert.cpp
@@ -8,14 +8,15 @@
 #include <libtorrent/piece_picker.hpp> // for piece_block
 #include <libtorrent/session_stats.hpp>
 #include <memory>
+#include "bytes.hpp"
 
 using namespace boost::python;
 using namespace libtorrent;
 
-std::string get_buffer(read_piece_alert const& rpa)
+bytes get_buffer(read_piece_alert const& rpa)
 {
-    return rpa.buffer ? std::string(rpa.buffer.get(), rpa.size)
-       : std::string();
+    return rpa.buffer ? bytes(rpa.buffer.get(), rpa.size)
+       : bytes();
 }
 
 tuple endpoint_to_tuple(tcp::endpoint const& ep)
@@ -267,7 +268,7 @@ void bind_alert()
 
     class_<torrent_removed_alert, bases<torrent_alert>, noncopyable>(
         "torrent_removed_alert", no_init)
-        .def_readonly("info_hash", &torrent_removed_alert::info_hash) 
+        .def_readonly("info_hash", &torrent_removed_alert::info_hash)
         ;
 
     class_<read_piece_alert, bases<torrent_alert>, noncopyable>(
diff --git a/bindings/python/src/torrent_handle.cpp b/bindings/python/src/torrent_handle.cpp
index 6b608dda5..1352a6b74 100644
--- a/bindings/python/src/torrent_handle.cpp
+++ b/bindings/python/src/torrent_handle.cpp
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 #include <boost/python.hpp>
 #include <boost/python/tuple.hpp>
+#include <boost/python/stl_iterator.hpp>
 #include <libtorrent/torrent_handle.hpp>
 #include <libtorrent/torrent_info.hpp>
 #include <libtorrent/torrent_status.hpp>
@@ -163,25 +164,9 @@ void prioritize_pieces(torrent_handle& info, object o)
 void prioritize_files(torrent_handle& info, object o)
 {
    std::vector<int> result;
-   try
-   {
-      object iter_obj = object( handle<>( PyObject_GetIter( o.ptr() ) ));
-      while( 1 )
-      {
-#if PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3
-         object obj = extract<object>( iter_obj.attr( "__next__" )() );
-#else
-         object obj = extract<object>( iter_obj.attr( "next" )() );
-#endif
-         result.push_back(extract<int const>( obj ));
-      }
-   }
-   catch( error_already_set )
-   {
-      PyErr_Clear();
-      info.prioritize_files(result);
-      return;
-   }
+   stl_input_iterator<int const> begin(o), end;
+   result.insert(result.begin(), begin, end);
+   info.prioritize_files(result);
 }
 
 list file_priorities(torrent_handle& handle)
diff --git a/bindings/python/test.py b/bindings/python/test.py
index bc7f60659..9b6669fdf 100644
--- a/bindings/python/test.py
+++ b/bindings/python/test.py
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ class test_torrent_handle(unittest.TestCase):
 
 	def test_torrent_handle(self):
 		ses = lt.session({'alert_mask': lt.alert.category_t.all_categories})
-		shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', 'test', 'test_torrents', 'url_seed_multi.torrent'), '.')
 		ti = lt.torrent_info('url_seed_multi.torrent');
 		h = ses.add_torrent({'ti': ti, 'save_path': os.getcwd()})
 
@@ -37,7 +36,6 @@ class test_torrent_info(unittest.TestCase):
 		self.assertEqual(info.total_size(), 1234)
 
 	def test_metadata(self):
-		shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', 'test', 'test_torrents', 'base.torrent'), '.')
 		ti = lt.torrent_info('base.torrent');
 
 		self.assertTrue(len(ti.metadata()) != 0)
@@ -48,7 +46,6 @@ class test_alerts(unittest.TestCase):
 	def test_alert(self):
 
 		ses = lt.session({'alert_mask': lt.alert.category_t.all_categories})
-		shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', 'test', 'test_torrents', 'base.torrent'), '.')
 		ti = lt.torrent_info('base.torrent');
 		h = ses.add_torrent({'ti': ti, 'save_path': os.getcwd()})
 		st = h.status()
@@ -106,5 +103,7 @@ class test_session(unittest.TestCase):
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
 	print(lt.__version__)
+	shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', 'test', 'test_torrents', 'url_seed_multi.torrent'), '.')
+	shutil.copy(os.path.join('..', '..', 'test', 'test_torrents', 'base.torrent'), '.')
 	unittest.main()