diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
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+# Copyright 2016 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import os
+from datetime import datetime
+from setuptools import setup
+
+
+def version():
+    version = os.getenv('VERSION', None)
+    if version:
+        # Most git tags are prefixed with 'v' (example: v1.2.3) this is
+        # never desirable for artifact repositories, so we strip the
+        # leading 'v' if it's present.
+        return version[1:] if version.startswith('v') else version
+    else:
+        # Default version is an ISO8601 compiliant datetime. PyPI doesn't allow
+        # the colon ':' character in its versions, and time is required to allow
+        # for multiple publications to master in one day. This datetime string
+        # uses the "basic" ISO8601 format for both its date and time components
+        # to avoid issues with the colon character (ISO requires that date and
+        # time components of a date-time string must be uniformly basic or
+        # extended, which is why the date component does not have dashes.
+        #
+        # Publications using datetime versions should only be made from master
+        # to represent the HEAD moving forward.
+        version = datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%S')
+        print("VERSION environment variable not set, using datetime instead: {}"
+              .format(version))
+
+    return version
+
+setup(
+    name='flatbuffers',
+    version=version(),
+    license='Apache 2.0',
+    author='FlatBuffers Contributors',
+    author_email='me@rwinslow.com',
+    url='https://google.github.io/flatbuffers/',
+    long_description=('Python runtime library for use with the '
+                      '`Flatbuffers <https://google.github.io/flatbuffers/>`_ '
+                      'serialization format.'),
+    packages=['flatbuffers'],
+    include_package_data=True,
+    requires=[],
+    description='The FlatBuffers serialization format for Python',
+    classifiers=[
+        'Intended Audience :: Developers',
+        'License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License',
+        'Operating System :: OS Independent',
+        'Programming Language :: Python',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
+        'Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules',
+    ],
+    project_urls={
+        'Documentation': 'https://google.github.io/flatbuffers/',
+        'Source': 'https://github.com/google/flatbuffers',
+    },
+)
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