diff --git a/src/attributecode/api.py b/src/attributecode/api.py
index b97c8193..32a7dea3 100644
--- a/src/attributecode/api.py
+++ b/src/attributecode/api.py
@@ -18,25 +18,15 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
-from collections import namedtuple
 import json
 
-try:
-    from urllib import urlencode
-    from urllib import quote
-except ImportError:
-    from urllib.parse import urlencode
-    from urllib.parse import quote
-
-try:
-    import httplib  # Python 2
-except ImportError:
-    import http.client as httplib  # Python 3
-
-try:
-    import urllib2  # Python 2
-except ImportError:
-    import urllib as urllib2  # Python 3
+try:  # Python 2
+    from urllib import urlencode, quote
+    from urllib2 import urlopen, Request, HTTPError, URLError
+except ImportError:  # Python 3
+    from urllib.parse import urlencode, quote
+    from urllib.request import urlopen, Request
+    from urllib.error import HTTPError, URLError
 
 from attributecode import ERROR
 from attributecode import Error
@@ -46,80 +36,6 @@
 API call helpers
 """
 
-def build_api_url(url, api_username, api_key, license_key):
-    """
-    Return a URl suitable for making an API call.
-    """
-    url = url.rstrip('/')
-
-    payload = {'username': api_username,
-               'api_key': api_key,
-               'format': 'json'}
-    encoded_payload = urlencode(payload)
-
-    api_url = '%(url)s/%(license_key)s/?%(encoded_payload)s' % locals()
-
-    # handle special characters in URL such as space etc.
-    api_url = quote(api_url, safe="%/:=&?~#+!$,;'@()*[]")
-    return api_url
-
-
-def get_license_data(self, url, api_username, api_key, license_key):
-    """
-    Return a list of errors and a dictionary of license data, given a DejaCode
-    API url and a DejaCode license_key, send an API request to get license
-    data for the license_key, authenticating through an api_key and username.
-    """
-    full_url = build_api_url(url, api_username, api_key, license_key)
-
-    errors = []
-    license_data = {}
-
-    msg = 'Failed to collect license data for %(license_key)s.'
-
-    try:
-        request = urllib2.Request(full_url)
-        response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
-        response_content = response.read()
-        license_data = json.loads(response_content)
-
-    except urllib2.HTTPError as e:
-        if e.code == httplib.UNAUTHORIZED:
-            msg = msg + ('Authorization denied: '
-                         'Invalid api_username: %(api_username)s '
-                         'or api_key: %(api_key)s.')
-        # FIXME: what about 404 and other cases?
-        errors.append(Error(ERROR, msg % locals()))
-
-    except urllib2.URLError as e:
-        msg = msg + 'Network problem. Check your internet connection.'
-        errors.append(Error(ERROR, msg % locals()))
-
-    except Exception as e:
-        # only keep the first 100 char of the exception
-        emsg = repr(e)[:100]
-        msg = msg + ' Error: %(emsg)s'
-        errors.append(Error(ERROR, msg % locals()))
-
-    return errors, license_data
-
-
-LicenseInfo = namedtuple('LicenseInfo', ['key', 'name', 'text'])
-
-
-def get_license_info(self, url, api_username, api_key, license_key,
-                     caller=get_license_data):
-    """
-    Return a list of errors and a tuple of key, name, text for a given
-    license_key using a DejaCode API request at url. caller is the function
-    used to call the API and is used mostly for mocking in tests.
-    """
-    errors, data = get_license_data(url, api_username, api_key, license_key)
-    key = data.get('key')
-    name = data.get('name')
-    text = data.get('full_text')
-    return errors, LicenseInfo(key, name, text)
-
 
 def request_license_data(url, api_key, license_key):
     """
@@ -127,6 +43,9 @@ def request_license_data(url, api_key, license_key):
     Send a request to a given API URL to gather license data for
     license_key, authenticating through an api_key.
     """
+    headers = {
+        'Authorization': 'Token %s' % api_key,
+    }
     payload = {
         'api_key': api_key,
         'key': license_key,
@@ -137,40 +56,42 @@ def request_license_data(url, api_key, license_key):
     encoded_payload = urlencode(payload)
     full_url = '%(url)s/?%(encoded_payload)s' % locals()
     # handle special characters in URL such as space etc.
-    full_url = quote(full_url, safe="%/:=&?~#+!$,;'@()*[]")
-    headers = {'Authorization': 'Token %s' % api_key}
+    quoted_url = quote(full_url, safe="%/:=&?~#+!$,;'@()*[]")
+
     license_data = {}
     errors = []
     try:
-        request = urllib2.Request(full_url, headers=headers)
-        response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
-        response_content = response.read()
+        request = Request(quoted_url, headers=headers)
+        response = urlopen(request)
+        response_content = response.read().decode('utf-8')
         license_data = json.loads(response_content)
         if not license_data['results']:
-            msg = (u"Invalid 'license': " + license_key)
+            msg = u"Invalid 'license': %s" % license_key
             errors.append(Error(ERROR, msg))
-    except urllib2.HTTPError as http_e:
+    except HTTPError as http_e:
         # some auth problem
         if http_e.code == 403:
-            msg = (u"Authorization denied. Invalid '--api_key'. License generation is skipped.")
+            msg = (u"Authorization denied. Invalid '--api_key'. "
+                   u"License generation is skipped.")
             errors.append(Error(ERROR, msg))
         else:
             # Since no api_url/api_key/network status have
             # problem detected, it yields 'license' is the cause of
             # this exception.
-            msg = (u"Invalid 'license': " + license_key)
+            msg = u"Invalid 'license': %s" % license_key
             errors.append(Error(ERROR, msg))
     except Exception as e:
         errors.append(Error(ERROR, str(e)))
     finally:
         license_data = license_data.get('results')[0] if license_data.get('count') == 1 else {}
+
     return license_data, errors
 
 
 def get_license_details_from_api(url, api_key, license_key):
     """
-    Returns the license_text of a given license_key using an API request.
-    Returns an empty string if the text is not available.
+    Return the license_text of a given license_key using an API request.
+    Return an empty string if the text is not available.
     """
     license_data, errors = request_license_data(url, api_key, license_key)
     license_name = license_data.get('name', '')
diff --git a/src/attributecode/cmd.py b/src/attributecode/cmd.py
index a829a179..41095ed6 100644
--- a/src/attributecode/cmd.py
+++ b/src/attributecode/cmd.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
-import codecs
 import logging
 import os
 from os.path import exists, join
@@ -28,19 +27,11 @@
 # silence unicode literals warnings
 click.disable_unicode_literals_warning = True
 
-import attributecode
-from attributecode import CRITICAL
-from attributecode import ERROR
-from attributecode import INFO
-from attributecode import NOTSET
-from attributecode import WARNING
 from attributecode import __about_spec_version__
 from attributecode import __version__
-from attributecode import attrib
-from attributecode import Error
-from attributecode import gen
+from attributecode.attrib import generate_and_save as attrib_generate_and_save
+from attributecode.gen import generate as gen_generate
 from attributecode import model
-from attributecode.model import About
 from attributecode import severities
 from attributecode.util import extract_zip
 from attributecode.util import to_posix
@@ -147,7 +138,7 @@ def inventory(location, output, quiet, format):
         # accept zipped ABOUT files as input
         location = extract_zip(location)
 
-    errors, abouts = attributecode.model.collect_inventory(location)
+    errors, abouts = model.collect_inventory(location)
 
     write_errors = model.write_output(abouts, output, format)
     for err in write_errors:
@@ -209,7 +200,7 @@ def gen(location, output, mapping, license_notice_text_location, fetch_license,
 
     click.echo('Generating .ABOUT files...')
 
-    errors, abouts = attributecode.gen.generate(
+    errors, abouts = gen_generate(
         location=location, base_dir=output, use_mapping=mapping,
         license_notice_text_location=license_notice_text_location,
         fetch_license=fetch_license)
@@ -274,7 +265,7 @@ def attrib(location, output, template, mapping, inventory, quiet):
         location = extract_zip(location)
 
     inv_errors, abouts = model.collect_inventory(location)
-    no_match_errors = attributecode.attrib.generate_and_save(
+    no_match_errors = attrib_generate_and_save(
         abouts=abouts, output_location=output,
         use_mapping=mapping, template_loc=template,
         inventory_location=inventory)
@@ -316,7 +307,7 @@ def check(location, show_all):
     click.echo('Running aboutcode-toolkit version ' + __version__)
     click.echo('Checking ABOUT files...')
 
-    errors, abouts = attributecode.model.collect_inventory(location)
+    errors, abouts = model.collect_inventory(location)
 
     msg_format = '%(sever)s: %(message)s'
     print_errors = []
diff --git a/src/attributecode/model.py b/src/attributecode/model.py
index d29395c4..f9475e82 100644
--- a/src/attributecode/model.py
+++ b/src/attributecode/model.py
@@ -37,30 +37,19 @@
 import re
 import sys
 
-if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
-    # Python 2
+if sys.version_info[0] < 3:  # Python 2
     import backports.csv as csv
-else:
-    # Python 3
+    from urlparse import urljoin, urlparse
+    from urllib2 import urlopen, Request, HTTPError
+else:  # Python 3
+    basestring = str
     import csv
+    from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse
+    from urllib.request import urlopen, Request
+    from urllib.error import HTTPError
 
 from license_expression import Licensing
 
-try:
-    import urllib2  # Python 2
-except ImportError:
-    import urllib as urllib2  # Python 3
-
-try:
-    from urlparse import urljoin, urlparse  # Python 2
-except ImportError:
-    from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse  # Python 3
-
-try:
-    basestring  # Python 2
-except NameError:
-    basestring = str  # Python 3
-
 from attributecode import CRITICAL
 from attributecode import ERROR
 from attributecode import INFO
@@ -81,7 +70,6 @@ class Field(object):
     An ABOUT file field. The initial value is a string. Subclasses can and
     will alter the value type as needed.
     """
-
     def __init__(self, name=None, value=None, required=False, present=False):
         # normalized names are lowercased per specification
         self.name = name
@@ -228,7 +216,6 @@ class StringField(Field):
     A field containing a string value possibly on multiple lines.
     The validated value is a string.
     """
-
     def _validate(self, *args, **kwargs):
         errors = super(StringField, self)._validate(*args, ** kwargs)
         return errors
@@ -640,7 +627,12 @@ def validate_fields(fields, about_file_path, running_inventory, base_dir,
     """
     errors = []
     for f in fields:
-        val_err = f.validate(base_dir=base_dir, about_file_path=about_file_path, running_inventory=running_inventory, license_notice_text_location=license_notice_text_location)
+        val_err = f.validate(
+            base_dir=base_dir,
+            about_file_path=about_file_path,
+            running_inventory=running_inventory,
+            license_notice_text_location=license_notice_text_location,
+        )
         errors.extend(val_err)
     return errors
 
@@ -666,7 +658,6 @@ def create_fields(self):
         Create fields in an ordered mapping to keep a standard ordering. We
         could use a metaclass to track ordering django-like but this approach
         is simpler.
-
         """
         self.fields = OrderedDict([
             ('about_resource', ListField(required=True)),
@@ -746,7 +737,8 @@ def __eq__(self, other):
                 and self.fields == other.fields
                 and self.custom_fields == other.custom_fields)
 
-    def attribution_fields(self, fields):
+    @staticmethod
+    def attribution_fields(fields):
         """
         Return attrib-only fields
         """
@@ -767,16 +759,15 @@ def attribution_fields(self, fields):
                          'owner',
                          'author']
 
-        return OrderedDict([(n, o,) for n, o in fields.items()
-                                if n in attrib_fields])
+        return OrderedDict([(n, o) for n, o in fields.items()
+                            if n in attrib_fields])
 
     def same_attribution(self, other):
         """
         Equality based on attribution-related fields.
         """
         return (isinstance(other, self.__class__)
-                and self.attribution_fields(self.fields)
-                    == self.attribution_fields(other.fields))
+                and self.attribution_fields(self.fields) == self.attribution_fields(other.fields))
 
     def resolved_resources_paths(self):
         """
@@ -1091,7 +1082,6 @@ def dump(self, location, with_absent=False, with_empty=True):
                     errors.append(msg)
         return errors
 
-
     def dump_lic(self, location, license_dict):
         """
         Write LICENSE files and return the a list of key, name, context and the url
@@ -1124,6 +1114,7 @@ def dump_lic(self, location, license_dict):
                         pass
         return license_key_name_context_url
 
+
 # valid field name
 field_name = r'(?P<name>[a-z][0-9a-z_]*)'
 
@@ -1406,13 +1397,6 @@ def by_license_content(abouts):
     return OrderedDict(sorted(grouped.items()))
 
 
-def common_licenses(abouts):
-    """
-    Return a ordered dictionary of repeated licenses sorted by key and update
-    the list of about objects with license references for repeated licenses.
-    """
-    pass
-
 def pre_process_and_fetch_license_dict(abouts, api_url, api_key):
     """
     Modify a list of About data dictionaries by adding license information
@@ -1432,7 +1416,7 @@ def pre_process_and_fetch_license_dict(abouts, api_url, api_key):
         msg = u'Network problem. Please check your Internet connection. License generation is skipped.'
         errors.append(Error(ERROR, msg))
     for about in abouts:
-        # No need to go thru all the about objects for license extraction if we detected
+        # No need to go through all the about objects for license extraction if we detected
         # invalid '--api_key'
         auth_error = Error(ERROR, u"Authorization denied. Invalid '--api_key'. License generation is skipped.")
         if auth_error in errors:
@@ -1460,6 +1444,7 @@ def pre_process_and_fetch_license_dict(abouts, api_url, api_key):
                             key_text_dict[license_key] = detail_list
     return key_text_dict, errors
 
+
 def parse_license_expression(lic_expression):
     licensing = Licensing()
     lic_list = []
@@ -1469,6 +1454,7 @@ def parse_license_expression(lic_expression):
         lic_list = licensing.license_keys(lic_expression)
     return special_char, lic_list
 
+
 def special_char_in_license_expresion(lic_expression):
     not_support_char = [
         '!', '@', '#', '$', '%', '^', '&', '*', '(', ')',
@@ -1480,13 +1466,14 @@ def special_char_in_license_expresion(lic_expression):
             special_character.append(char)
     return special_character
 
+
 def valid_api_url(api_url):
     try:
-        request = urllib2.Request(api_url)
+        request = Request(api_url)
         # This will always goes to exception as no key are provided.
         # The purpose of this code is to validate the provided api_url is correct
-        response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
-    except urllib2.HTTPError as http_e:
+        urlopen(request)
+    except HTTPError as http_e:
         # The 403 error code is refer to "Authentication credentials were not provided.".
         # This is correct as no key are provided.
         if http_e.code == 403:
diff --git a/tests/test_api.py b/tests/test_api.py
index 42f8936e..502170b3 100644
--- a/tests/test_api.py
+++ b/tests/test_api.py
@@ -20,32 +20,41 @@
 
 import unittest
 
-from mock import patch
+import mock
 
-import attributecode
 from attributecode import api
-from attributecode.api import LicenseInfo
+from attributecode import ERROR
+from attributecode import Error
+from testing_utils import FakeResponse
 
 
 class ApiTest(unittest.TestCase):
-
-    def test_build_api_url(self):
-        url = 'http:/dejacode.org/'
-        api_username = 'phi'
-        api_key = 'ABCD'
-        license_key = 'apache'
-        expected = 'http:/dejacode.org/apache/?username=phi&api_key=ABCD&format=json'
-        result = api.build_api_url(url, api_username, api_key, license_key)
+    @mock.patch.object(api, 'request_license_data')
+    def test_api_get_license_details_from_api(self, request_license_data):
+        license_data = {
+            'name': 'Apache License 2.0',
+            'full_text': 'Apache License Version 2.0 ...',
+            'key': 'apache-2.0',
+        }
+        errors = []
+        request_license_data.return_value = license_data, errors
+
+        expected = ('Apache License 2.0', 'apache-2.0', 'Apache License Version 2.0 ...', [])
+        result = api.get_license_details_from_api('url', 'api_key', 'license_key')
         assert expected == result
 
-    @patch.object(attributecode.api, 'get_license_data')
-    def test_get_license_info(self, mock_data):
-        mock_data.return_value = [], {'key': 'test', 'name': 'test_name', 'full_text': 'test_full_text' }
-        result = api.get_license_info(self, '', '', '', '')
-        assert result == ([], LicenseInfo(key='test', name='test_name', text='test_full_text'))
-
-    @patch.object(attributecode.api, 'request_license_data')
-    def test_get_license_details_from_api(self, mock_data):
-        mock_data.return_value = {'name': 'test_name', 'full_text': 'test_full_text', 'key': 'test'}, []
-        result = api.get_license_details_from_api('', '', '')
-        assert result == ('test_name', 'test', 'test_full_text', [])
\ No newline at end of file
+    @mock.patch.object(api, 'urlopen')
+    def test_api_request_license_data(self, mock_data):
+        response_content = (
+            b'{"count":1,"results":[{"name":"Apache 2.0","key":"apache-2.0","text":"Text"}]}'
+        )
+        mock_data.return_value = FakeResponse(response_content)
+        license_data = api.request_license_data('http://fake.url/', 'api_key', 'apache-2.0')
+        expected = ({'name': 'Apache 2.0', 'key': 'apache-2.0', 'text': 'Text'}, [])
+        assert expected == license_data
+
+        response_content = b'{"count":0,"results":[]}'
+        mock_data.return_value = FakeResponse(response_content)
+        license_data = api.request_license_data('http://fake.url/', 'api_key', 'apache-2.0')
+        expected = ({}, [Error(ERROR, "Invalid 'license': apache-2.0")])
+        assert expected == license_data
diff --git a/tests/test_model.py b/tests/test_model.py
index 61561f0c..d4db513e 100644
--- a/tests/test_model.py
+++ b/tests/test_model.py
@@ -25,11 +25,7 @@
 import unittest
 from unittest.case import expectedFailure
 
-from testing_utils import extract_test_loc
-from testing_utils import get_temp_file
-from testing_utils import get_test_loc
-from testing_utils import get_test_lines
-from testing_utils import get_unicode_content
+import mock
 
 import attributecode
 from attributecode import CRITICAL
@@ -41,6 +37,11 @@
 from attributecode import util
 from attributecode.util import add_unc
 from attributecode.util import load_csv
+from testing_utils import extract_test_loc
+from testing_utils import get_temp_file
+from testing_utils import get_test_loc
+from testing_utils import get_test_lines
+from testing_utils import get_unicode_content
 
 
 def check_csv(expected, result):
@@ -1313,3 +1314,25 @@ def test_by_name(self):
                                 ('eclipse', [d]),
                                 ])
         assert expected == results
+
+
+class FetchLicenseTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    @mock.patch.object(model, 'urlopen')
+    def test_valid_api_url(self, mock_data):
+        mock_data.return_value = ''
+        assert model.valid_api_url('non_valid_url') is False
+
+    @mock.patch('attributecode.util.have_network_connection')
+    @mock.patch('attributecode.model.valid_api_url')
+    def test_pre_process_and_fetch_license_dict(self, have_network_connection, valid_api_url):
+        have_network_connection.return_value = True
+
+        valid_api_url.return_value = False
+        error_msg = ('Network problem. Please check your Internet connection. '
+                     'License generation is skipped.')
+        expected = ({}, [Error(ERROR, error_msg)])
+        assert model.pre_process_and_fetch_license_dict([], '', '') == expected
+
+        valid_api_url.return_value = True
+        expected = ({}, [])
+        assert model.pre_process_and_fetch_license_dict([], '', '') == expected
diff --git a/tests/testing_utils.py b/tests/testing_utils.py
index 6c77651d..ff60e16b 100644
--- a/tests/testing_utils.py
+++ b/tests/testing_utils.py
@@ -155,4 +155,14 @@ def extract_test_loc(path, extract_func=extract_zip):
     else:
         target_dir = get_temp_dir()
     extract_func(archive, target_dir)
-    return target_dir
\ No newline at end of file
+    return target_dir
+
+
+class FakeResponse(object):
+    response_content = None
+
+    def __init__(self, response_content):
+        self.response_content = response_content
+
+    def read(self):
+        return self.response_content