diff --git a/buffer/data.py b/buffer/data.py
index 7ac0d8a..0a3ca2f 100644
--- a/buffer/data.py
+++ b/buffer/data.py
@@ -5,7 +5,10 @@ class DataBuffer(Buffer):
     def __init__(self, name, data):
         Buffer.__init__(self)
         self._name = name
-        self.lines = data.split("\n")
+        if type(data) == bytes:
+            self.lines = data.decode('UTF-8').split('\n')
+        else:
+            self.lines = data.split("\n")
     def name(self):
         return self._name
     def close(self):
diff --git a/method/git.py b/method/git.py
index 4736c9e..a6ef6ef 100644
--- a/method/git.py
+++ b/method/git.py
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ class GitBlame(VcBlame):
         if not m:
             raise VcException("couldn't parse %r" % line)
         groups = m.groups()
-        fields = [s.decode('UTF-8') for s in groups[:-1]]
+        fields = list(groups[:-1])
         del fields[1]
         if fields[1] == 'Not Committed Yet':
             fields[1] = ''
diff --git a/util.py b/util.py
index 2935d31..e865700 100644
--- a/util.py
+++ b/util.py
@@ -137,12 +137,13 @@ except:
                                             dict.__repr__(self))
 
 def decode(s):
-    for coding in ('utf-8', 'latin-1'):
-        try:
-            return s.decode(coding)
-        except:
-            pass
-    return s.decode('ascii', 'replace')
+    return s
+    #for coding in ('utf-8', 'latin-1'):
+    #    try:
+    #        return s.decode(coding)
+    #    except:
+    #        pass
+    #return s.decode('ascii', 'replace')
 
 def communicate(cmd, stdin=None, stderr=True, shell=False):
     if stderr: