diff --git a/aws/s3/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/aws/s3/domain/S3Object.java b/aws/s3/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/aws/s3/domain/S3Object.java
index 2b0caf867e..7d5ee147ee 100644
--- a/aws/s3/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/aws/s3/domain/S3Object.java
+++ b/aws/s3/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/aws/s3/domain/S3Object.java
@@ -216,14 +216,21 @@ public class S3Object {
         }
 
         public void setMd5(byte[] md5) {
-            this.md5 = Arrays.copyOf(md5, md5.length);
+        	this.md5 = new byte[md5.length];
+            System.arraycopy(md5, 0, this.md5, 0, md5.length);
         }
 
         /**
          * @return the md5 value stored in the Etag header returned by S3.
          */
         public byte[] getMd5() {
-            return (md5 == null) ? null : Arrays.copyOf(md5, md5.length);
+        	if (md5 != null) {
+            	byte[] retval = new byte[md5.length];
+                System.arraycopy(this.md5, 0, retval, 0, md5.length);
+                return retval;
+        	} else {
+        		return null;
+        	}
         }
 
         public void setUserMetadata(Multimap<String, String> userMetadata) {
diff --git a/aws/s3/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/aws/s3/domain/S3ObjectTest.java b/aws/s3/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/aws/s3/domain/S3ObjectTest.java
index 9cfc69254b..128eaed87e 100644
--- a/aws/s3/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/aws/s3/domain/S3ObjectTest.java
+++ b/aws/s3/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/aws/s3/domain/S3ObjectTest.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ package org.jclouds.aws.s3.domain;
 
 import org.jclouds.http.ContentTypes;
 import static org.testng.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.testng.Assert.assertNotSame;
 import org.testng.annotations.Test;
 
 import java.io.File;
@@ -40,4 +41,14 @@ public class S3ObjectTest {
         assertEquals(object.getMetadata().getContentType(),
                 ContentTypes.BINARY);
     }
+    
+    @Test
+    void testMd5CopyingNotReference() {
+    	byte[] md5 = new byte[12];
+        S3Object object = new S3Object("test");
+    	object.getMetadata().setMd5(md5);
+    	byte[] returnedMd5 = object.getMetadata().getMd5();
+    	assertNotSame(md5, returnedMd5);
+    }
+    
 }