diff --git a/HPasteIt.hs b/HPasteIt.hs
--- a/HPasteIt.hs
+++ b/HPasteIt.hs
@@ -3,11 +3,13 @@
 
 import ProgOpts (ProgOpts(..), parseOpts)
 
+import Control.Applicative
 import System.Directory
 import System.Environment
 import System.Exit
 import System.IO
 
+import qualified Data.ByteString.UTF8 as UTF8
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8 as BS
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Lazy.Char8 as LBS
 
@@ -29,16 +31,16 @@
     }
   = do
     paste <- case opt_file of
-        "-"  -> BS.getContents
-        file -> BS.readFile file
+        "-"  -> UTF8.fromString <$> getContents
+        file -> UTF8.fromString <$> readFile file
 
     res <- withManager $ \man -> try $ do
         rq <- parseUrl "http://hpaste.org/new"
         let rq' = urlEncodedBody
-                [ ("title"   , BS.pack opt_title   )
-                , ("author"  , BS.pack opt_author  )
-                , ("language", BS.pack opt_language)
-                , ("channel" , BS.pack opt_channel )
+                [ ("title"   , UTF8.fromString opt_title   )
+                , ("author"  , UTF8.fromString opt_author  )
+                , ("language", UTF8.fromString opt_language)
+                , ("channel" , UTF8.fromString opt_channel )
                 , ("paste"   , paste               )
                 , ("email"   , ""                  )
                 ] rq
diff --git a/ProgOpts.hs b/ProgOpts.hs
--- a/ProgOpts.hs
+++ b/ProgOpts.hs
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
 optPasteParser :: Parser ProgOpts
 optPasteParser = PasteOpts
         <$> nullOption (mconcat [ reader  Right
-                                , value   "via HPasteIt"
+                                , value   "(no title)"
                                 , showDefault
                                 , short   't'
                                 , long    "title"
diff --git a/hpasteit.cabal b/hpasteit.cabal
--- a/hpasteit.cabal
+++ b/hpasteit.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:                hpasteit
-version:             0.2.3.0
+version:             0.2.4.0
 synopsis:            A command-line client for hpaste.org
 license:             BSD3
 license-file:        LICENSE
@@ -18,6 +18,12 @@
   .
   Run @hpasteit --help@ for usage information and @hpasteit COMMAND --help@ for
   detailed usage information about a particular command.
+  .
+  Changes in 0.2.4.0
+  .
+  * made the program unicode-aware
+  .
+  * changed default title from "via HPasteIt" to "(no title)"
 
 source-repository head
   type: git
@@ -37,6 +43,7 @@
                      , network              ==2.4.*
                      , directory            ==1.2.*
                      , safe                 ==0.3.*
+                     , utf8-string          ==0.3.*
 
   ghc-options:         -Wall