diff --git a/include/exiv2/basicio.hpp b/include/exiv2/basicio.hpp
index 55ff0972..6a8fbf24 100644
--- a/include/exiv2/basicio.hpp
+++ b/include/exiv2/basicio.hpp
@@ -35,6 +35,10 @@
 #define EXV_XPATH_MEMIO 0
 #endif
 
+#ifndef EXV_USE_CURL
+#define EXV_USE_CURL 0
+#endif
+
 // *****************************************************************************
 // included header files
 #include "types.hpp"
@@ -47,6 +51,7 @@
 #include <fcntl.h>      // _O_BINARY in FileIo::FileIo
 #include <ctime>        // timestamp for the name of temporary file
 #include <cstring>      // std::memcpy
+
 // *****************************************************************************
 // namespace extensions
 namespace Exiv2 {
@@ -1142,7 +1147,6 @@ namespace Exiv2 {
         //@}
     };
 
-
 #if EXV_USE_CURL == 1
     /*!
         @brief Provides the http, https read/write access and ftp read access for the RemoteIo.
diff --git a/include/exiv2/http.hpp b/include/exiv2/http.hpp
index 2492ad4c..e4e5ad1d 100644
--- a/include/exiv2/http.hpp
+++ b/include/exiv2/http.hpp
@@ -13,7 +13,10 @@ namespace Exiv2 {
 
 }
 
-#if EXV_USE_CURL
+#ifndef EXV_USE_CURL
+#define EXV_USE_CURL 0
+#endif
+#if EXV_USE_CURL == 1
 #include <curl/curl.h>
 #endif