diff --git a/src/puz.js b/src/puz.js
index 3aa7fdd..2fe6444 100644
--- a/src/puz.js
+++ b/src/puz.js
@@ -18,11 +18,8 @@ function strToBytes(str, end) {
     end = '\0';
   }
   str += end;
-  var result = new Uint8Array(str.length);
-  for (var i = 0; i < str.length; i += 1) {
-    result[i] = str.charCodeAt(i);
-  }
-  return result;
+  const encoder = new TextEncoder('ISO-8859-1');
+  return encoder.encode(str);
 }
 
 function concat(byteArrays) {
@@ -280,7 +277,7 @@ function getExtension(bytes, code) {
   return null; // could not find
 }
 
-function getRebus(bytes) {
+function getRebus(bytes, encoding) {
   var grbs = 'GRBS';
   var rtbl = 'RTBL';
 
@@ -289,7 +286,7 @@ function getRebus(bytes) {
     return; // no rebus
   }
   var solbytes = getExtension(bytes, rtbl);
-  var enc = new TextDecoder('ISO-8859-1');
+  var enc = new TextDecoder(encoding);
   var solstring = enc.decode(new Uint8Array(solbytes));
   if (!solstring) {
     return;
@@ -356,7 +353,6 @@ function addRebusToGrid(grid, rebus) {
 
 function PUZtoJSON(buffer) {
   var grid = [];
-  var info = {};
   var across = [];
   var down = [];
   var bytes = new Uint8Array(buffer);
@@ -398,20 +394,34 @@ function PUZtoJSON(buffer) {
     }
   }
 
-  var ibyte = 52 + ncol * nrow * 2;
+  var ibyte;
   function readString() {
-    var result = "";
-    var b = bytes[ibyte++];
-    while (b !== 0) {
-      result += String.fromCharCode(b);
-      b = bytes[ibyte++];
+    const start = ibyte;
+    while (bytes[ibyte] !== 0) {
+      ibyte++;
     }
-    return result;
+    ibyte++;
+    
+    const slice = bytes.slice(start, ibyte - 1);
+    return new TextDecoder(encoding).decode(slice);
   }
 
-  info.title = readString();
-  info.author = readString();
-  info.copyright = readString();
+  function readInfo() {
+    ibyte = 52 + ncol * nrow * 2;
+    var title = readString();
+    var author = readString();
+    var copyright = readString();
+    return { title, author, copyright };
+  }
+
+  // The PUZ spec reqiures ISO-8859-1 not UTF-8, but some files don't follow the spec.
+  // Sniff the copyright string for the © unicode which is only encoded correctly once.
+  var encoding = 'utf-8';
+  var info = readInfo();
+  if (!info.copyright.includes('©')) {
+    encoding = 'ISO-8859-1';
+    info = readInfo();
+  }
 
   for (var _i2 = 1; _i2 <= n; _i2++) {
     if (isAcross[_i2]) {
@@ -424,7 +434,7 @@ function PUZtoJSON(buffer) {
 
   info.description = readString();
 
-  var rebus = getRebus(bytes);
+  var rebus = getRebus(bytes, encoding);
   var circles = getCircles(bytes);
   var shades = getShades(bytes);
   if (rebus) {