diff --git a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
index b20837ce28..eedab37a7e 100755
--- a/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ from .compat import (
     compat_urllib_error,
     compat_urllib_request,
     compat_urllib_request_DataHandler,
-    compat_urllib_request_Request,
 )
 from .utils import (
     ContentTooShortError,
@@ -65,6 +64,7 @@ from .utils import (
     SameFileError,
     sanitize_filename,
     sanitize_path,
+    sanitized_Request,
     std_headers,
     subtitles_filename,
     UnavailableVideoError,
@@ -1874,7 +1874,7 @@ class YoutubeDL(object):
     def urlopen(self, req):
         """ Start an HTTP download """
         if isinstance(req, compat_basestring):
-            req = compat_urllib_request_Request(req)
+            req = sanitized_Request(req)
         return self._opener.open(req, timeout=self._socket_timeout)
 
     def print_debug_header(self):
diff --git a/youtube_dl/compat.py b/youtube_dl/compat.py
index 4e3de7f517..a3e85264ac 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/compat.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/compat.py
@@ -198,14 +198,6 @@ except ImportError:  # Python < 3.4
 
             return compat_urllib_response.addinfourl(io.BytesIO(data), headers, url)
 
-
-# Prepend protocol-less URLs with `http:` scheme in order to mitigate the number of
-# unwanted failures due to missing protocol
-def compat_urllib_request_Request(url, *args, **kwargs):
-    return compat_urllib_request.Request(
-        'http:%s' % url if url.startswith('//') else url, *args, **kwargs)
-
-
 try:
     compat_basestring = basestring  # Python 2
 except NameError:
diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/vimeo.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/vimeo.py
index d1daf96729..f392ccf1cd 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/vimeo.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/vimeo.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import itertools
 from .common import InfoExtractor
 from ..compat import (
     compat_HTTPError,
-    compat_urllib_request_Request,
     compat_urlparse,
 )
 from ..utils import (
@@ -17,6 +16,7 @@ from ..utils import (
     InAdvancePagedList,
     int_or_none,
     RegexNotFoundError,
+    sanitized_Request,
     smuggle_url,
     std_headers,
     unified_strdate,
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ class VimeoBaseInfoExtractor(InfoExtractor):
             'service': 'vimeo',
             'token': token,
         }))
-        login_request = compat_urllib_request_Request(self._LOGIN_URL, data)
+        login_request = sanitized_Request(self._LOGIN_URL, data)
         login_request.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded')
         login_request.add_header('Referer', self._LOGIN_URL)
         self._set_vimeo_cookie('vuid', vuid)
@@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ class VimeoIE(VimeoBaseInfoExtractor):
         if url.startswith('http://'):
             # vimeo only supports https now, but the user can give an http url
             url = url.replace('http://', 'https://')
-        password_request = compat_urllib_request_Request(url + '/password', data)
+        password_request = sanitized_Request(url + '/password', data)
         password_request.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded')
         password_request.add_header('Referer', url)
         self._set_vimeo_cookie('vuid', vuid)
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ class VimeoIE(VimeoBaseInfoExtractor):
             raise ExtractorError('This video is protected by a password, use the --video-password option')
         data = urlencode_postdata(encode_dict({'password': password}))
         pass_url = url + '/check-password'
-        password_request = compat_urllib_request_Request(pass_url, data)
+        password_request = sanitized_Request(pass_url, data)
         password_request.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded')
         return self._download_json(
             password_request, video_id,
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ class VimeoIE(VimeoBaseInfoExtractor):
             url = 'https://vimeo.com/' + video_id
 
         # Retrieve video webpage to extract further information
-        request = compat_urllib_request_Request(url, None, headers)
+        request = sanitized_Request(url, None, headers)
         try:
             webpage = self._download_webpage(request, video_id)
         except ExtractorError as ee:
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ class VimeoChannelIE(VimeoBaseInfoExtractor):
         password_path = self._search_regex(
             r'action="([^"]+)"', login_form, 'password URL')
         password_url = compat_urlparse.urljoin(page_url, password_path)
-        password_request = compat_urllib_request_Request(password_url, post)
+        password_request = sanitized_Request(password_url, post)
         password_request.add_header('Content-type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded')
         self._set_vimeo_cookie('vuid', vuid)
         self._set_vimeo_cookie('xsrft', token)
@@ -640,7 +640,7 @@ class VimeoWatchLaterIE(VimeoChannelIE):
 
     def _page_url(self, base_url, pagenum):
         url = '%s/page:%d/' % (base_url, pagenum)
-        request = compat_urllib_request_Request(url)
+        request = sanitized_Request(url)
         # Set the header to get a partial html page with the ids,
         # the normal page doesn't contain them.
         request.add_header('X-Requested-With', 'XMLHttpRequest')
diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index c0325f054d..d7b737e216 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -373,6 +373,13 @@ def sanitize_path(s):
     return os.path.join(*sanitized_path)
 
 
+# Prepend protocol-less URLs with `http:` scheme in order to mitigate the number of
+# unwanted failures due to missing protocol
+def sanitized_Request(url, *args, **kwargs):
+    return compat_urllib_request.Request(
+        'http:%s' % url if url.startswith('//') else url, *args, **kwargs)
+
+
 def orderedSet(iterable):
     """ Remove all duplicates from the input iterable """
     res = []