diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
index 3bb1c6c948..409b1c3c1f 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 Provides abstraction for metadata reading.writing from a variety of ebook formats.
 """
 import os, sys, re
-from collections import namedtuple
 
 from urlparse import urlparse
 
@@ -15,18 +14,6 @@ from calibre import relpath, guess_type, remove_bracketed_text, prints
 
 from calibre.utils.config_base import tweaks
 
-OPFVersion = namedtuple('OPFVersion', 'major minor patch')
-
-def parse_opf_version(raw):
-    try:
-        v = list(map(int, raw.split('.')))
-    except Exception:
-        v = [2, 0, 0]
-    while len(v) < 3:
-        v.append(0)
-    v = v[:3]
-    return OPFVersion(*v)
-
 try:
     _author_pat = re.compile(tweaks['authors_split_regex'])
 except:
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf.py
index c8337ee13e..a0a9f963c9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf.py
@@ -5,9 +5,8 @@
 from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import,
                         print_function)
 
-from calibre.ebooks.metadata import parse_opf_version
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata.opf2 import OPF, pretty_print
-from calibre.ebooks.metadata.utils import parse_opf, normalize_languages, create_manifest_item
+from calibre.ebooks.metadata.utils import parse_opf, normalize_languages, create_manifest_item, parse_opf_version
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata import MetaInformation
 
 class DummyFile(object):
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/utils.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/utils.py
index 6e021defda..d778696ad6 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/utils.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/utils.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import,
                         print_function)
+from collections import namedtuple
 from future_builtins import map
 
 from lxml import etree
@@ -16,6 +17,18 @@ from calibre.utils.localization import lang_as_iso639_1
 
 PARSER = etree.XMLParser(recover=True, no_network=True)
 
+OPFVersion = namedtuple('OPFVersion', 'major minor patch')
+
+def parse_opf_version(raw):
+    try:
+        v = list(map(int, raw.split('.')))
+    except Exception:
+        v = [2, 0, 0]
+    while len(v) < 3:
+        v.append(0)
+    v = v[:3]
+    return OPFVersion(*v)
+
 def parse_opf(stream_or_path):
     stream = stream_or_path
     if not hasattr(stream, 'read'):
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/polish/container.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/polish/container.py
index d7bf382970..a0dbd1551d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/polish/container.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/polish/container.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ from calibre.ebooks.chardet import xml_to_unicode
 from calibre.ebooks.conversion.plugins.epub_input import (
     ADOBE_OBFUSCATION, IDPF_OBFUSCATION, decrypt_font_data)
 from calibre.ebooks.conversion.preprocess import HTMLPreProcessor, CSSPreProcessor as cssp
-from calibre.ebooks.metadata import parse_opf_version
+from calibre.ebooks.metadata.utils import parse_opf_version
 from calibre.ebooks.mobi import MobiError
 from calibre.ebooks.mobi.reader.headers import MetadataHeader
 from calibre.ebooks.mobi.tweak import set_cover