--- a/createrepo/utils.py
+++ b/createrepo/utils.py
@@ -76,29 +76,11 @@ def returnFD(filename):
 def utf8String(string):
     """hands back a unicoded string"""
     if string is None:
-        return ''
+        return u''
     elif isinstance(string, unicode):    
         return string
-    try:
-        x = unicode(string, 'ascii')
-        return string
-    except UnicodeError:
-        encodings = ['utf-8', 'iso-8859-1', 'iso-8859-15', 'iso-8859-2']
-        for enc in encodings:
-            try:
-                x = unicode(string, enc)
-            except UnicodeError:
-                pass
-            else:
-                if x.encode(enc) == string:
-                    return x.encode('utf-8')
-    newstring = ''
-    for char in string:
-        if ord(char) > 127:
-            newstring = newstring + '?'
-        else:
-            newstring = newstring + char
-    return newstring
+    else:
+        return unicode(string, 'utf-8', errors='replace')
 
 def checkAndMakeDir(dir):
     """