diff --git a/Lib/filecmp.py b/Lib/filecmp.py
index 4728317..3a79381 100644
--- a/Lib/filecmp.py
+++ b/Lib/filecmp.py
@@ -268,7 +268,7 @@
 def _cmp(a, b, sh, abs=abs, cmp=cmp):
     try:
         return not abs(cmp(a, b, sh))
-    except os.error:
+    except (os.error, IOError):
         return 2
 
 
diff --git a/Misc/ACKS b/Misc/ACKS
index 660f52c..9e09abd 100644
--- a/Misc/ACKS
+++ b/Misc/ACKS
@@ -626,6 +626,7 @@
 Jim Lynch
 Mikael Lyngvig
 Martin von Löwis
+Till Maas
 Jeff MacDonald
 John Machin
 Andrew I MacIntyre
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 867ebc5..6eea7de 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue 16584: in filecomp._cmp, catch IOError as well as os.error.
+  Patch by Till Maas.
+
 - Issue #17926: Fix dbm.__contains__ on 64-bit big-endian machines.
 
 - Issue #17918: When using SSLSocket.accept(), if the SSL handshake failed