diff --git a/src/restic/backend/mem/mem_backend.go b/src/restic/backend/mem/mem_backend.go
index bbb4dbd1a..6c3296604 100644
--- a/src/restic/backend/mem/mem_backend.go
+++ b/src/restic/backend/mem/mem_backend.go
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import (
 	"restic"
 	"sync"
 
-	"restic/backend"
 	"restic/errors"
 
 	"restic/debug"
@@ -114,7 +113,7 @@ func (be *MemoryBackend) Load(ctx context.Context, h restic.Handle, length int,
 		buf = buf[:length]
 	}
 
-	return backend.Closer{Reader: bytes.NewReader(buf)}, nil
+	return ioutil.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader(buf)), nil
 }
 
 // Stat returns information about a file in the backend.
diff --git a/src/restic/backend/rest/rest.go b/src/restic/backend/rest/rest.go
index 4145a2a32..337d8584c 100644
--- a/src/restic/backend/rest/rest.go
+++ b/src/restic/backend/rest/rest.go
@@ -108,9 +108,8 @@ func (b *restBackend) Save(ctx context.Context, h restic.Handle, rd io.Reader) (
 	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(ctx)
 	defer cancel()
 
-	// make sure that client.Post() cannot close the reader by wrapping it in
-	// backend.Closer, which has a noop method.
-	rd = backend.Closer{Reader: rd}
+	// make sure that client.Post() cannot close the reader by wrapping it
+	rd = ioutil.NopCloser(rd)
 
 	b.sem.GetToken()
 	resp, err := ctxhttp.Post(ctx, b.client, b.Filename(h), "binary/octet-stream", rd)
diff --git a/src/restic/backend/utils.go b/src/restic/backend/utils.go
index a07c7e86e..76e9de569 100644
--- a/src/restic/backend/utils.go
+++ b/src/restic/backend/utils.go
@@ -29,16 +29,6 @@ func LoadAll(ctx context.Context, be restic.Backend, h restic.Handle) (buf []byt
 	return ioutil.ReadAll(rd)
 }
 
-// Closer wraps an io.Reader and adds a Close() method that does nothing.
-type Closer struct {
-	io.Reader
-}
-
-// Close is a no-op.
-func (c Closer) Close() error {
-	return nil
-}
-
 // LimitedReadCloser wraps io.LimitedReader and exposes the Close() method.
 type LimitedReadCloser struct {
 	io.ReadCloser