diff --git a/pyp2rpm/archive.py b/pyp2rpm/archive.py
index 24606e0..0971ca9 100644
--- a/pyp2rpm/archive.py
+++ b/pyp2rpm/archive.py
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ class Archive(object):
                 if (full_path and member.name == name)\
                         or (not full_path and os.path.basename(member.name) == name):
                     extracted = self.handle.extractfile(member)
-                    return extracted.read().decode(locale.getpreferredencoding())
+                    return extracted.read().decode('utf-8')
 
         return None