diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/pdfminer_six/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pdfminer_six/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..71d439d4c20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pdfminer_six/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+{ stdenv, buildPythonPackage, python, fetchFromGitHub, six, pycryptodome, chardet, nose, pytest }:
+
+buildPythonPackage rec {
+  pname = "pdfminer_six";
+  version = "20170720";
+
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = "pdfminer";
+    repo = "pdfminer.six";
+    rev = "${version}";
+    sha256 = "0vax5k0a8qn8x86ybpzqydk7x3hajsk8b6xf3y610j19mgag6wvs";
+  };
+
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ six pycryptodome chardet ];
+  
+  checkInputs = [ nose pytest ];
+  checkPhase = ''
+    ${python.interpreter} -m pytest
+  '';
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "fork of PDFMiner using six for Python 2+3 compatibility";
+    homepage = https://github.com/pdfminer/pdfminer.six;
+    license = licenses.mit;
+    maintainers = with maintainers; [ psyanticy ];
+  };
+}
+
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index c8402e184b7..b5849a0bc71 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -311,6 +311,8 @@ in {
 
   outcome = callPackage ../development/python-modules/outcome {};
 
+  pdfminer = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pdfminer_six { };
+
   plantuml = callPackage ../tools/misc/plantuml { };
 
   Pmw = callPackage ../development/python-modules/Pmw { };
@@ -3791,28 +3793,6 @@ in {
     };
   };
 
-
-  pdfminer = buildPythonPackage rec {
-    version = "20140328";
-    name = "pdfminer-${version}";
-
-    disabled = ! isPy27;
-
-    src = pkgs.fetchurl {
-      url = "mirror://pypi/p/pdfminer/pdfminer-${version}.tar.gz";
-      sha256 = "0qpjv4b776dwvpf5a7v19g41qsz97bv0qqsyvm7a31k50n9pn65s";
-    };
-
-    propagatedBuildInputs = with self; [  ];
-
-    meta = {
-      description = "Tool for extracting information from PDF documents";
-      homepage = http://euske.github.io/pdfminer/index.html;
-      license = licenses.mit;
-      maintainers = with maintainers; [ ];
-    };
-  };
-
   peppercorn = buildPythonPackage rec {
     name = "peppercorn-0.5";