diff --git a/src/main/java/com/browserstack/local/Local.java b/src/main/java/com/browserstack/local/Local.java
index 8e4cb34..7fefe33 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/browserstack/local/Local.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/browserstack/local/Local.java
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ public class Local {
     private LocalProcess proc = null;
 
     // Current version of binding package, used for --source option of binary
-    private final String packageVersion = "1.1.4";
+    private static final String packageVersion = "1.1.4";
     private final Map<String, String> parameters;
     private final Map<String, String> avoidValueParameters;
 
@@ -130,6 +130,15 @@ public boolean isRunning() throws Exception {
         return isProcessRunning(pid);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Returns the package version
+     *
+     * @return {String} package version
+     */
+    public static String getPackageVersion() {
+        return packageVersion;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Creates a list of command-line arguments for the Local instance
      *
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/browserstack/local/LocalBinary.java b/src/main/java/com/browserstack/local/LocalBinary.java
index 5f088d0..6c83156 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/browserstack/local/LocalBinary.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/browserstack/local/LocalBinary.java
@@ -2,11 +2,15 @@
 
 import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLConnection;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+import java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream;
+import java.util.zip.ZipException;
 
 class LocalBinary {
 
@@ -58,7 +62,8 @@ private void initialize() throws LocalException {
             throw new LocalException("Failed to detect OS type");
         }
 
-        httpPath = BIN_URL + binFileName;
+        String sourceURL = BIN_URL;
+        httpPath = sourceURL + binFileName;
     }
 
     private boolean isAlpine() {
@@ -174,7 +179,7 @@ private void downloadBinary(String destParentDir, Boolean custom) throws LocalEx
             URL url = new URL(httpPath);
 
             File f = new File(source);
-            FileUtils.copyURLToFile(url, f);
+            newCopyToFile(url, f);
 
             changePermissions(binaryPath);
         } catch (Exception e) {
@@ -192,4 +197,26 @@ private void changePermissions(String path) {
     public String getBinaryPath() {
         return binaryPath;
     }
+
+    private static void newCopyToFile(URL url, File f) throws IOException {
+        URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
+        conn.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", "browserstack-local-java/" + Local.getPackageVersion());
+        conn.setRequestProperty("Accept-Encoding", "gzip, *");
+        String contentEncoding = conn.getContentEncoding();
+
+        if (contentEncoding == null || !contentEncoding.toLowerCase().contains("gzip")) {
+            FileUtils.copyToFile(conn.getInputStream(), f);
+            return;
+        }
+
+        try (InputStream stream = new GZIPInputStream(conn.getInputStream())) {
+            if (System.getenv().containsKey("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL_DEBUG_GZIP")) {
+                System.out.println("using gzip in " + conn.getRequestProperty("User-Agent"));
+            }
+
+            FileUtils.copyToFile(stream, f);
+        } catch (ZipException e) {
+            FileUtils.copyURLToFile(url, f);
+        }
+    }
 }