...

diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION b/release-notes/VERSION
index ae666fe..dffd5d3 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
     class loader and Class.forName, as necessary
   * [JACKSON-803]: Problems with Smile, parsing of long names
    (reported by D Lam)
+  * [JACKSON-804]: Allow byte range up to 255, for interoperability with unsigned bytes
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 === History: ===

diff --git a/src/java/org/codehaus/jackson/JsonParser.java b/src/java/org/codehaus/jackson/JsonParser.java
index a48f236..b8e221c 100644
--- a/src/java/org/codehaus/jackson/JsonParser.java
+++ b/src/java/org/codehaus/jackson/JsonParser.java

@@ -33,7 +33,8 @@
     implements Closeable, Versioned
 {
     private final static int MIN_BYTE_I = (int) Byte.MIN_VALUE;
-    private final static int MAX_BYTE_I = (int) Byte.MAX_VALUE;
+    // [JACKSON-804]: allow range up to 255 (instead of Java's 127) for better interoperability
+    private final static int MAX_BYTE_I = 255;
 
     private final static int MIN_SHORT_I = (int) Short.MIN_VALUE;
     private final static int MAX_SHORT_I = (int) Short.MAX_VALUE;

diff --git a/src/mapper/java/org/codehaus/jackson/map/deser/std/StdDeserializer.java b/src/mapper/java/org/codehaus/jackson/map/deser/std/StdDeserializer.java
index 40dce9b..fa0aacf 100644
--- a/src/mapper/java/org/codehaus/jackson/map/deser/std/StdDeserializer.java
+++ b/src/mapper/java/org/codehaus/jackson/map/deser/std/StdDeserializer.java

@@ -202,7 +202,8 @@
                 throw ctxt.weirdStringException(_valueClass, "not a valid Byte value");
             }
             // So far so good: but does it fit?
-            if (value < Byte.MIN_VALUE || value > Byte.MAX_VALUE) {
+	    // as per [JACKSON-804], allow range up to 255, inclusive
+            if (value < Byte.MIN_VALUE || value > 255) {
                 throw ctxt.weirdStringException(_valueClass, "overflow, value can not be represented as 8-bit value");
             }
             return Byte.valueOf((byte) value);

diff --git a/src/mapper/java/org/codehaus/jackson/map/deser/std/StdKeyDeserializer.java b/src/mapper/java/org/codehaus/jackson/map/deser/std/StdKeyDeserializer.java
index 524a3f2..7639b7c 100644
--- a/src/mapper/java/org/codehaus/jackson/map/deser/std/StdKeyDeserializer.java
+++ b/src/mapper/java/org/codehaus/jackson/map/deser/std/StdKeyDeserializer.java

@@ -128,7 +128,8 @@
 		public Byte _parse(String key, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws JsonMappingException
         {
             int value = _parseInt(key);
-            if (value < Byte.MIN_VALUE || value > Byte.MAX_VALUE) {
+	    // as per [JACKSON-804], allow range up to 255, inclusive
+            if (value < Byte.MIN_VALUE || value > 255) {
                 throw ctxt.weirdKeyException(_keyClass, key, "overflow, value can not be represented as 8-bit value");
             }
             return Byte.valueOf((byte) value);