diff --git a/smtp.phpmailer.inc b/smtp.phpmailer.inc
index 5e58fd8..8b6aa53 100644
--- a/smtp.phpmailer.inc
+++ b/smtp.phpmailer.inc
@@ -1469,13 +1469,13 @@ class PHPMailer {
           return FALSE;
         }
       }
-      if (PHP_VERSION < 6) {
+      if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.3.0', '<')) {
         $magic_quotes = get_magic_quotes_runtime();
         set_magic_quotes_runtime(0);
       }
       $file_buffer  = file_get_contents($path);
       $file_buffer  = $this->EncodeString($file_buffer, $encoding);
-      if (PHP_VERSION < 6) {
+      if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.3.0', '<')) {
         set_magic_quotes_runtime($magic_quotes);
       }
       return $file_buffer;