diff --git a/actions/register.php b/actions/register.php
index 1f470ccc0d..2b41b6a77a 100644
--- a/actions/register.php
+++ b/actions/register.php
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class RegisterAction extends Action {
 		$password = $this->arg('password');
 		$confirm = $this->arg('confirm');
 		$email = $this->arg('email');
-		
+
 		# Input scrubbing
 		
 		$nickname = common_canonical_nickname($nickname);
diff --git a/lib/common.php b/lib/common.php
index 3e33896a10..b6e01a0962 100644
--- a/lib/common.php
+++ b/lib/common.php
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@ function common_current_user() {
 # get canonical version of nickname for comparison
 function common_canonical_nickname($nickname) {
 	# XXX: UTF-8 canonicalization (like combining chars)
-	return strtolower($nickname);
+	return $nickname;
 }
 
 # get canonical version of email for comparison