diff -r a8f8ada7825c Lib/email/message.py
--- a/Lib/email/message.py	Fri Jun 12 16:48:30 2015 -0400
+++ b/Lib/email/message.py	Sat Jun 13 18:11:10 2015 +1200
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
     return plist
 
 
-def _unquotevalue(value):
+def _unquotevalue(value, strict=False):
     # This is different than utils.collapse_rfc2231_value() because it doesn't
     # try to convert the value to a unicode.  Message.get_param() and
     # Message.get_params() are both currently defined to return the tuple in
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@
     if isinstance(value, tuple):
         return value[0], value[1], utils.unquote(value[2])
     else:
-        return utils.unquote(value)
+        return utils.unquote(value, strict=strict)
 
 
 
@@ -643,7 +643,8 @@
         params = utils.decode_params(params)
         return params
 
-    def get_params(self, failobj=None, header='content-type', unquote=True):
+    def get_params(self, failobj=None, header='content-type', unquote=True,
+            strict=False):
         """Return the message's Content-Type parameters, as a list.
 
         The elements of the returned list are 2-tuples of key/value pairs, as
@@ -661,12 +662,12 @@
         if params is missing:
             return failobj
         if unquote:
-            return [(k, _unquotevalue(v)) for k, v in params]
+            return [(k, _unquotevalue(v, strict=strict)) for k, v in params]
         else:
             return params
 
     def get_param(self, param, failobj=None, header='content-type',
-                  unquote=True):
+                  unquote=True, strict=False):
         """Return the parameter value if found in the Content-Type header.
 
         Optional failobj is the object to return if there is no Content-Type
@@ -694,7 +695,7 @@
         for k, v in self._get_params_preserve(failobj, header):
             if k.lower() == param.lower():
                 if unquote:
-                    return _unquotevalue(v)
+                    return _unquotevalue(v, strict=False)
                 else:
                     return v
         return failobj
diff -r a8f8ada7825c Lib/email/utils.py
--- a/Lib/email/utils.py	Fri Jun 12 16:48:30 2015 -0400
+++ b/Lib/email/utils.py	Sat Jun 13 18:11:10 2015 +1200
@@ -238,11 +238,18 @@
 
 
 # rfc822.unquote() doesn't properly de-backslash-ify in Python pre-2.3.
-def unquote(str):
+def unquote(str, strict=False):
     """Remove quotes from a string."""
     if len(str) > 1:
-        if str.startswith('"') and str.endswith('"'):
-            return str[1:-1].replace('\\\\', '\\').replace('\\"', '"')
+        if str.startswith('"'):
+            if str.endswith('"') or not strict:
+                str = str[1:-1]
+            else:
+                try:
+                    str = str[1:str[1:].index('"') + 1]
+                except IndexError:
+                    return str
+            return re.sub(r'\\(.)',r'\1',str[1:-1])
         if str.startswith('<') and str.endswith('>'):
             return str[1:-1]
     return str