diff --git a/pywcmp/ets.py b/pywcmp/ets.py
index 356dd73..ea90075 100644
--- a/pywcmp/ets.py
+++ b/pywcmp/ets.py
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@
 
 # executable test for WCMP2
 
-from io import BytesIO
 import json
 
 import click
@@ -60,9 +59,10 @@ def validate(ctx, file_or_url, logfile, verbosity,
     click.echo(f'Opening {file_or_url}')
 
     if file_or_url.startswith('http'):
-        content = BytesIO(urlopen_(file_or_url).read())
+        content = urlopen_(file_or_url).read()
     else:
-        content = file_or_url
+        with open(file_or_url) as fh:
+            content = fh.read()
 
     click.echo(f'Validating {file_or_url}')
 
diff --git a/pywcmp/kpi.py b/pywcmp/kpi.py
index cf42be3..c66b3b7 100644
--- a/pywcmp/kpi.py
+++ b/pywcmp/kpi.py
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@
 
 # WMO Core Metadata Profile Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
 
-from io import BytesIO
 import json
 import logging
 
@@ -66,9 +65,10 @@ def validate(ctx, file_or_url, summary, kpi, logfile, verbosity,
     setup_logger(verbosity, logfile)
 
     if file_or_url.startswith('http'):
-        content = BytesIO(urlopen_(file_or_url).read())
+        content = urlopen_(file_or_url).read()
     else:
-        content = file_or_url
+        with open(file_or_url) as fh:
+            content = fh.read()
 
     click.echo(f'Validating {file_or_url}')
 
diff --git a/pywcmp/util.py b/pywcmp/util.py
index c57fcd0..eb5f57d 100644
--- a/pywcmp/util.py
+++ b/pywcmp/util.py
@@ -201,17 +201,16 @@ def check_url(url: str, check_ssl: bool, timeout: int = 30) -> dict:
 
 def parse_wcmp(content: str) -> dict:
     """
-    Parse a buffer into a JSON dict (WCMP2)
+    Parse a string of WCMP into a JSON dict (WCMP2)
 
-    :param content: str of JSON
+    :param content: `str` of JSON
 
     :returns: `dict` object of WCMP
     """
 
     LOGGER.debug('Attempting to parse as JSON')
     try:
-        with open(content) as fh:
-            data = json.load(fh)
+        data = json.loads(content)
     except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError as err:
         LOGGER.error(err)
         raise RuntimeError(f'Encoding error: {err}')
diff --git a/tests/run_tests.py b/tests/run_tests.py
index 3c7aa2c..c4bb6ba 100644
--- a/tests/run_tests.py
+++ b/tests/run_tests.py
@@ -138,7 +138,13 @@ def test_parse_wcmp(self):
         """test invalid input"""
 
         with self.assertRaises(RuntimeError):
-            _ = parse_wcmp(get_test_file_path('data/not-json.csv'))
+            file_ = 'data/not-json.csv'
+            with open(get_test_file_path(file_)) as fh:
+                _ = parse_wcmp(fh.read())
+
+        file_ = 'data/wcmp2-passing.json'
+        with open(get_test_file_path(file_)) as fh:
+            _ = parse_wcmp(fh.read())
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':