diff --git a/source/de/anomic/http/httpdProxyHandler.java b/source/de/anomic/http/httpdProxyHandler.java
index 3a1323a30..357e12503 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/http/httpdProxyHandler.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/http/httpdProxyHandler.java
@@ -986,9 +986,17 @@ public final class httpdProxyHandler {
             // input so we have to end it to do the request
             final long requestLength = requestHeader.contentLength();
             if(requestLength > -1) {
-                final ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-                serverFileUtils.copy(body, buffer, requestLength);
-                body = new ByteArrayInputStream(buffer.toByteArray());
+                final byte[] bodyData;
+                if(requestLength == 0) {
+                    // no body
+                    bodyData = new byte[0];
+                } else {
+                    // read content-length bytes into memory
+                    final ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+                    serverFileUtils.copy(body, buffer, requestLength);
+                    bodyData = buffer.toByteArray();
+                }
+                body = new ByteArrayInputStream(bodyData);
             }
             JakartaCommonsHttpResponse res = null;
             try {
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/server/serverFileUtils.java b/source/de/anomic/server/serverFileUtils.java
index 93490eee0..52fda469b 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/server/serverFileUtils.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/server/serverFileUtils.java
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ public final class serverFileUtils {
      * 
      * @param source InputStream
      * @param dest OutputStream
-     * @param count the total amount of bytes to copy (-1 for all)
+     * @param count the total amount of bytes to copy (-1 for all, else must be greater than zero)
      * @return Total number of bytes copied.
      * @throws IOException 
      * 
@@ -79,6 +79,12 @@ public final class serverFileUtils {
      * @see #copy(File source, File dest)
      */
     public static long copy(final InputStream source, final OutputStream dest, final long count) throws IOException {
+        assert count == -1 || count > 0 : "precondition violated: count == -1 || count > 0 (nothing to copy)";
+        if(count == 0) {
+            // no bytes to copy
+            return 0;
+        }
+        
         final byte[] buffer = new byte[DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE];                
         int chunkSize = (int) ((count > 0) ? Math.min(count, DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE) : DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE);