diff --git a/jsonschema.py b/jsonschema.py
index e4a6bab..ef7af9f 100644
--- a/jsonschema.py
+++ b/jsonschema.py
@@ -12,11 +12,11 @@ instance under a schema, and will create a validator for you.
 from __future__ import division, unicode_literals
 
 import collections
+import json
 import itertools
 import operator
 import re
 import sys
-import warnings
 
 
 __version__ = "0.8dev"
@@ -28,10 +28,12 @@ if PY3:
     basestring = unicode = str
     iteritems = operator.methodcaller("items")
     from urllib.parse import unquote
+    from urllib.request import urlopen
 else:
     from itertools import izip as zip
     iteritems = operator.methodcaller("iteritems")
     from urllib import unquote
+    from urllib2 import urlopen
 
 
 class UnknownType(Exception):
@@ -499,10 +501,11 @@ class RefResolver(object):
 
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, store=None):
+    def __init__(self, store=None, get_page=urlopen):
         if store is None:
             store = {}
 
+        self.get_page = get_page
         self.store = store
 
     def resolve(self, root_schema, ref):
@@ -515,6 +518,8 @@ class RefResolver(object):
             return self.store[ref]
         elif ref.startswith("#"):
             return self.resolve_local(root_schema, ref)
+        else:
+            return json.load(self.get_page(ref))
 
     def resolve_local(self, root_schema, ref):
         """
diff --git a/tests.py b/tests.py
index 26fcda2..821794a 100644
--- a/tests.py
+++ b/tests.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from decimal import Decimal
 from functools import wraps
+from io import StringIO
 import glob
 import os
 import re
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ except ImportError:
 
 from jsonschema import (
     PY3, SchemaError, UnknownType, ValidationError, ErrorTree,
-    Draft3Validator, RefResolver, iteritems, validate
+    Draft3Validator, RefResolver, iteritems, urlopen, validate
 )
 
 
@@ -654,6 +655,20 @@ class TestRefResolver(TestCase):
         resolved = self.resolver.resolve(self.schema, ref)
         self.assertEqual(resolved, self.schema["properties"]["foo"])
 
+    def test_it_retrieves_non_local_refs(self):
+        schema = '{"type" : "integer"}'
+        get_page = mock.Mock(return_value=StringIO(schema))
+        resolver = RefResolver(get_page=get_page)
+
+        url = "http://example.com/schema"
+        resolved = resolver.resolve(mock.Mock(), url)
+
+        self.assertEqual(resolved, json.loads(schema))
+        get_page.assert_called_once_with(url)
+
+    def test_it_uses_urlopen_by_default_for_nonlocal_refs(self):
+        self.assertEqual(self.resolver.get_page, urlopen)
+
     def test_it_accepts_a_ref_store(self):
         store = mock.Mock()
         self.assertEqual(RefResolver(store).store, store)