diff --git a/scripts/spdxcheck.py b/scripts/spdxcheck.py
index 5056fb3b897d..e559c6294c39 100755
--- a/scripts/spdxcheck.py
+++ b/scripts/spdxcheck.py
@@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ class id_parser(object):
         self.curline = 0
         try:
             for line in fd:
+                line = line.decode(locale.getpreferredencoding(False), errors='ignore')
                 self.curline += 1
                 if self.curline > maxlines:
                     break
@@ -249,12 +250,13 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
 
     try:
         if len(args.path) and args.path[0] == '-':
-            parser.parse_lines(sys.stdin, args.maxlines, '-')
+            stdin = os.fdopen(sys.stdin.fileno(), 'rb')
+            parser.parse_lines(stdin, args.maxlines, '-')
         else:
             if args.path:
                 for p in args.path:
                     if os.path.isfile(p):
-                        parser.parse_lines(open(p), args.maxlines, p)
+                        parser.parse_lines(open(p, 'rb'), args.maxlines, p)
                     elif os.path.isdir(p):
                         scan_git_subtree(repo.head.reference.commit.tree, p)
                     else: