diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 21257a9..93e64f9 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -3,8 +3,11 @@
    * You can now create and end links.
    * Underline and strikethrough now work.
    * Pulldowns for search suggestions, importing, and exporting show up.
+ * Improved page loading speed and fixed a rare session locking timeout bug
+   by removing all implicit session locking.
  * Fixed a bug that broke that Luminotes Desktop product download page if
    PayPal took too long to notify Luminotes of the purchase.
+   
 
 1.5.2: October 1, 2008
  * Leading/trailing spaces in note titles are now ignored when making links
diff --git a/config/Common.py b/config/Common.py
index ee8e358..bc4fb15 100644
--- a/config/Common.py
+++ b/config/Common.py
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ settings = {
     "session_filter.storage_path": "session",
     "session_filter.timeout": 60 * 72, # 72 hours
     "session_filter.clean_up_delay": 5,
-    "session_filter.locking": "implicit",
     "encoding_filter.on": True,
     "encoding_filter.encoding": "utf-8",
     "decoding_filter.on": True,
diff --git a/controller/Files.py b/controller/Files.py
index a112d6c..d9af4d4 100644
--- a/controller/Files.py
+++ b/controller/Files.py
@@ -185,13 +185,6 @@ class FieldStorage( cherrypy._cpcgifs.FieldStorage ):
     cherrypy.server.socket_timeout = 60 # increase socket timeout to one minute (default is 10 sec)
     DASHES_AND_NEWLINES = 6 # four dashes and two newlines
 
-    # release the cherrypy session lock so that the user can issue other commands while the file is
-    # uploading
-    try:
-      cherrypy.session.release_lock()
-    except ( KeyError, OSError ):
-      pass
-
     # pluck the file id out of the query string. it would be preferable to grab it out of parsed
     # form variables instead, but at this point in the processing, all the form variables might not
     # be parsed
@@ -295,13 +288,6 @@ class Files( object ):
     @return: file data
     @raise Access_error: the current user doesn't have access to the notebook that the file is in
     """
-    # release the session lock before beginning to stream the download. otherwise, if the
-    # download is cancelled before it's done, the lock won't be released
-    try:
-      cherrypy.session.release_lock()
-    except ( KeyError, OSError ):
-      pass
-
     db_file = self.__database.load( File, file_id )
 
     if not db_file or not self.__users.check_access( user_id, db_file.notebook_id ):
@@ -350,13 +336,6 @@ class Files( object ):
     @return: file data
     @raise Access_error: the access_id is unknown or doesn't grant access to the file
     """
-    # release the session lock before beginning to stream the download. otherwise, if the
-    # download is cancelled before it's done, the lock won't be released
-    try:
-      cherrypy.session.release_lock()
-    except ( KeyError, OSError ):
-      pass
-
     # load the download_access object corresponding to the given id
     download_access = self.__database.load( Download_access, access_id )
     if download_access is None:
@@ -451,11 +430,6 @@ class Files( object ):
     @return: thumbnail image data
     @raise Access_error: the current user doesn't have access to the notebook that the file is in
     """
-    try:
-      cherrypy.session.release_lock()
-    except ( KeyError, OSError ):
-      pass
-
     db_file = self.__database.load( File, file_id )
 
     if not db_file or not self.__users.check_access( user_id, db_file.notebook_id ):
@@ -515,11 +489,6 @@ class Files( object ):
     @return: image data
     @raise Access_error: the current user doesn't have access to the notebook that the file is in
     """
-    try:
-      cherrypy.session.release_lock()
-    except ( KeyError, OSError ):
-      pass
-
     db_file = self.__database.load( File, file_id )
 
     if not db_file or not self.__users.check_access( user_id, db_file.notebook_id ):
@@ -707,13 +676,6 @@ class Files( object ):
     """
     global current_uploads
 
-    # release the session lock before beginning to stream the upload report. otherwise, if the
-    # upload is cancelled before it's done, the lock won't be released
-    try:
-      cherrypy.session.release_lock()
-    except ( KeyError, OSError ):
-      pass
-
     # poll until the file is uploading (as determined by current_uploads) or completely uploaded (in
     # the database with a filename)
     while True: