diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/git.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/git.pm
index 042c69f5a..12f3a74cb 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/git.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/git.pm
@@ -447,7 +447,7 @@ sub rcs_commit_staged ($$$) {
 	# Set the commit author and email to the web committer.
 	my %env=%ENV;
 	if (defined $user || defined $ipaddr) {
-		my $u=defined $user ? $user : $ipaddr;
+		my $u=encode_utf8(defined $user ? $user : $ipaddr);
 		$ENV{GIT_AUTHOR_NAME}=$u;
 		$ENV{GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL}="$u\@web";
 	}
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index c66db85a2..a7e7544c6 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+ikiwiki (3.08) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
+
+  * git: Fix utf-8 encoding of author names.
+
+ -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:00:21 -0400
+
 ikiwiki (3.07) unstable; urgency=low
  
   * Updated German translation (Kai Wasserbäch). Closes: #518377