diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 36f4f946..1472132a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -345,16 +345,15 @@ if test "$found" = "1"; then
     AX_PKG_SWIG
     if test -z "$SWIG"; then
         if test "$explicit_languages" = "1"; then
-            die=yes
-            AC_MSG_NOTICE([[
+            AC_MSG_ERROR([[
 ***
 *** You need SWIG to build the Python bindings.
 ***]])
         else
-            enabled_languages=$(echo $enabled_languages | sed 's/qt//')
+            enabled_languages=$(echo $enabled_languages | sed 's/python//')
         fi
     else
-        AM_PATH_PYTHON([3.2])
+        AM_PATH_PYTHON([3.3])
         AX_SWIG_PYTHON
     fi
 fi
diff --git a/lang/python/Makefile.am b/lang/python/Makefile.am
index 308fcd03..86c19659 100644
--- a/lang/python/Makefile.am
+++ b/lang/python/Makefile.am
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ gpgme.h: ../../src/gpgme.h
 # For VPATH builds we need to copy some files because Python's
 # distutils are not VPATH-aware.
 copystamp: $(srcdir)/pyme $(srcdir)/helpers.c $(srcdir)/helpers.h
-	if test "$(srcdir)" != "$(builddir)" ; then cp -a $^ . ; fi
+	if test "$(srcdir)" != "$(builddir)" ; then cp -r $^ . ; fi
 	touch $@
 
 gpgme_wrap.c pyme/pygpgme.py: gpgme.i gpgme.h copystamp