diff --git a/CHANGES.current b/CHANGES.current
index f63880528..734065c07 100644
--- a/CHANGES.current
+++ b/CHANGES.current
@@ -490,7 +490,7 @@ Version 1.3.28 (unreleased).
 	    - Finally, no more ClassPtr shadow classes. You will see
 	      only a clean Class shadow class in the .py file.
 
-	    - No more thisown attribute either, the PySwigObject now
+	    - No more 'real' thisown attribute either, the PySwigObject now
               carries the ownership info.
 
 	      You can also do something like
@@ -499,12 +499,31 @@ Version 1.3.28 (unreleased).
 		  >>> True
 		  
 		  self.this.disown()
+		  self.this.own(0)
 	          print self.this.own() 
 		  >>> False		  
 
 		  self.this.acquire()
+		  self.this.own(1)
 	          print self.this.own() 
-		  >>> True		  
+		  >>> True
+
+	      Still the old way,
+	      
+	          print self.thisown
+		  >>> True
+
+		  self.thisown = 0
+	          print self.thisown
+		  >>> False		  
+
+		  self.thisown = 1
+	          print self.thisown
+		  >>> True
+
+              is supported, and python dispatch the proper method
+              calls as needed. 		  
+	       
 
 	    - Support for iterators in STL/STD containers, for example, if you have
 
@@ -605,20 +624,25 @@ Version 1.3.28 (unreleased).
 		      
             *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***
 
-	    There is no more 'thisown' attribute. If you use it, you
-	    need to change as follows:
+	    There is no more 'thisown' attribute. If you use it, python
+	    will translate the following code as follows:
 
                 if (self.thisown):   ==>   if (self.this.own()):
-		self.thisown = 1     ==>   self.this.acquire()
-                self.thisown = 0     ==>   self.this.disown()
+		self.thisown = 1     ==>   self.this.own(1)
+                self.thisown = 0     ==>   self.this.own(0)
 
-            if you really really like the old 'thisown' attribute, you
-	    can submit a patch to treat it as a property, and dispatch
-	    the new method calls. Of course, before you try, it needs
-	    to work with old and new python versions, and with classic
-	    and modern python classes.
+	    Still, maybe in some strange case the translation is not
+	    100% secure,so if you have a problem, please report it
+	    and/or use the new 'self.this.own()' accessor.
 	    
 	    
+            *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***
+	    
+	    There is no more ClassPtr classes, so, if in the past you
+	    needed to resort in some kind of trick to use, or overcome
+	    their presence, it is no longer needed, but the extra code
+	    you added could break.
+
 
 10/30/2005: mkoeppe 
 	    [Guile] Make declared and defined linkage of SWIG_init consistent.  
diff --git a/Examples/test-suite/python/disown_runme.py b/Examples/test-suite/python/disown_runme.py
index c11acf2fa..b8cae077a 100644
--- a/Examples/test-suite/python/disown_runme.py
+++ b/Examples/test-suite/python/disown_runme.py
@@ -1,9 +1,25 @@
 from disown import *
 
 a = A()
+
+tmp = a.thisown
+
+a.thisown = 0
+if a.thisown:
+    raise RuntimeError
+
+a.thisown = 1
+if (not a.thisown):
+    raise RuntimeError
+
+a.thisown = tmp
+if (a.thisown != tmp):
+    raise RuntimeError    
+
+
 b = B()
 
 b.acquire(a)
 
-if a.this.own():
+if a.thisown:
     raise RuntimeError
diff --git a/Source/Modules/python.cxx b/Source/Modules/python.cxx
index 4f45fd6dd..19af5dbaa 100644
--- a/Source/Modules/python.cxx
+++ b/Source/Modules/python.cxx
@@ -224,6 +224,7 @@ public:
 	} else if (strcmp(argv[i],"-classic") == 0) {
 	  classic = 1;
 	  apply = 1;
+	  modern = 0;
 	  Swig_mark_arg(i);
 	} else if (strcmp(argv[i],"-cppcast") == 0) {
 	  cppcast = 1;
@@ -439,6 +440,7 @@ public:
         // Python-2.2 object hack
         Printv(f_shadow,
                "def _swig_setattr_nondynamic(self,class_type,name,value,static=1):\n",
+               tab4, "if (name == \"thisown\"): return self.this.own(value)\n",
                tab4, "if (name == \"this\"):\n",
                tab4, tab4, "if type(value).__name__ == 'PySwigObject':\n",
                tab4, tab8, "self.__dict__[name] = value\n",
@@ -463,6 +465,7 @@ public:
 
         Printv(f_shadow,
                "def _swig_getattr(self,class_type,name):\n",
+               tab4, "if (name == \"thisown\"): return self.this.own()\n",
                tab4, "method = class_type.__swig_getmethods__.get(name,None)\n",
                tab4, "if method: return method(self)\n",
                tab4, "raise AttributeError,name\n\n",
@@ -489,6 +492,7 @@ public:
 #ifdef USE_THISOWN
 	       tab4, tab4, "if hasattr(self,name) or (name in (\"this\", \"thisown\")):\n",
 #else
+	       tab4, tab4, "if (name == \"thisown\"): return self.this.own(value)\n",
 	       tab4, tab4, "if hasattr(self,name) or (name == \"this\"):\n",
 #endif
 	       tab4, tab4, tab4, "set(self,name,value)\n",
@@ -2229,6 +2233,8 @@ public:
                tab4, "__getattr__ = lambda self, name: _swig_getattr(self, ", class_name, ", name)\n",
                NIL);
       } else {
+	Printv(f_shadow, tab4, "if _newclass: thisown = property(lambda x: x.this.own(), ",
+	       "lambda x, v: x.this.own(v), doc='The membership flag')\n", NIL);
 	/* Add static attribute */
 	if (GetFlag(n,"feature:python:nondynamic")) {
 	  Printv(f_shadow_file,