Index: trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/gui/GettingStarted.java
===================================================================
--- trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/gui/GettingStarted.java	(revision 3121)
+++ trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/gui/GettingStarted.java	(revision 3122)
@@ -7,4 +7,5 @@
 import java.awt.BorderLayout;
 import java.awt.EventQueue;
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 
 import javax.swing.JEditorPane;
@@ -68,6 +69,10 @@
             Main.pref.putInteger("cache.motd.html.version", myVersion);
             Main.pref.put("cache.motd.html.lang", myLang);
-
-            return motd.getBytes();
+            try {
+                return motd.getBytes("utf-8");
+            } catch(UnsupportedEncodingException e){
+                e.printStackTrace();
+                return new byte[0];
+            }
         }
 
Index: trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/io/CacheCustomContent.java
===================================================================
--- trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/io/CacheCustomContent.java	(revision 3121)
+++ trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/io/CacheCustomContent.java	(revision 3122)
@@ -8,4 +8,5 @@
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.util.Date;
 
@@ -117,5 +118,10 @@
     public String updateForceString() {
         updateForce();
-        return new String(data);
+        try {
+            return new String(data,"utf-8");
+        } catch(UnsupportedEncodingException e){
+            e.printStackTrace();
+            return "";
+        }
     }
 
@@ -136,5 +142,10 @@
      */
     public String getDataString() {
-        return new String(getData());
+        try {
+            return new String(getData(), "utf-8");
+        } catch(UnsupportedEncodingException e){
+            e.printStackTrace();
+            return "";
+        }
     }