diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 Arjun Guha
 Brendan Hickey
-Stephen Maka
+Stephan Maka
 Simon Michael
diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+1.2.1 (2015/4/25)
+
+* GHC 7.10 compatibility
+* allow utf8-string 0.3.8+
+* fix compilation with network >= 2.6 (#18)
diff --git a/CouchDB.cabal b/CouchDB.cabal
--- a/CouchDB.cabal
+++ b/CouchDB.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name:           CouchDB
-Version:        1.2
+Version:        1.2.1
 Cabal-Version:	>= 1.8
 Copyright:      Copyright (c) 2008-2012.
 License:        BSD3
@@ -11,16 +11,25 @@
 Category:       Database
 Build-Type:     Simple
 Synopsis:       CouchDB interface
-Extra-Source-Files: README LICENSE AUTHORS
+Extra-Source-Files: README LICENSE AUTHORS CHANGES
 
 Description:
+   An interface to CouchDB servers.
 
+flag network-uri
+   description: Get Network.URI from the new network-uri package ? A compatibility flag, cabal will toggle it as needed.
+   default: True
+
 Test-Suite test-couchdb
   Hs-Source-Dirs: src
   Type: exitcode-stdio-1.0
   Main-Is: Tests.hs
   Build-Depends:
-    base >= 4 && < 5, mtl, containers, network, HTTP>=4000.0.4, json>=0.4.3, utf8-string >= 0.3.6 && <= 0.3.7, HUnit, bytestring
+    base >= 4 && < 5, mtl, containers, HTTP>=4000.0.4, json>=0.4.3, utf8-string >= 0.3.6 && <= 1.1, HUnit, bytestring
+  if flag(network-uri)
+    build-depends: network >= 2.6, network-uri >= 2.6
+  else
+    build-depends: network < 2.6, network-uri < 2.6
   Extensions:
     FlexibleInstances
   ghc-options:
@@ -29,7 +38,11 @@
 Library
   Hs-Source-Dirs: src
   Build-Depends:
-    base >= 4 && < 5, mtl, containers, network, HTTP>=4000.0.4, json>=0.4.3, utf8-string >= 0.3.6 && <= 0.3.7, bytestring
+    base >= 4 && < 5, mtl, containers, network, network-uri, HTTP>=4000.0.4, json>=0.4.3, utf8-string >= 0.3.6 && <= 1.1, bytestring
+  if flag(network-uri)
+    build-depends: network >= 2.6, network-uri >= 2.6
+  else
+    build-depends: network < 2.6, network-uri < 2.6
   ghc-options:
     -fwarn-incomplete-patterns
   Extensions:     
diff --git a/src/Database/CouchDB/HTTP.hs b/src/Database/CouchDB/HTTP.hs
--- a/src/Database/CouchDB/HTTP.hs
+++ b/src/Database/CouchDB/HTTP.hs
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 import qualified Data.ByteString as BS (ByteString, length)
 import qualified Data.ByteString.UTF8 as UTF8 (fromString, toString)
 import Network.HTTP.Auth
+import Control.Applicative
 import Control.Monad (ap)
 
 -- |Describes a connection to a CouchDB database.  This type is
@@ -46,6 +47,8 @@
 -- if it is closed.
 data CouchMonad a = CouchMonad (CouchConn -> IO (a,CouchConn))
 
+instance Applicative CouchMonad where
+instance Functor CouchMonad where
 instance Monad CouchMonad where
 
   return a = CouchMonad $ \conn -> return (a,conn)