diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 48f89be..6c9ca0b 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 DISTNAME = 'scikits.crab'
 DESCRIPTION = 'A recommender engine for Python.'
-LONG_DESCRIPTION = open('README.md').read()
+LONG_DESCRIPTION = open('README.md', encoding="utf8").read()
 MAINTAINER = 'Marcel Caraciolo',
 MAINTAINER_EMAIL = 'marcel@muricoca.com',
 URL = 'http://muricoca.github.com/crab/'