diff --git a/Alien/Package/Rpm.pm b/Alien/Package/Rpm.pm
index 8ae808e..d862072 100644
--- a/Alien/Package/Rpm.pm
+++ b/Alien/Package/Rpm.pm
@@ -176,6 +176,30 @@ sub unpack {
 			or die "error moving unpacked files into the default prefix directory: $!";
 	}
 
+	if ($> == 0) {
+		# rpm files have two sets of permissions; the set in the cpio
+		# archive, and the set in the control data; which override them.
+		# The set in the control data are more correct, so let's use those.
+		open (GETPERMS, 'rpm --queryformat \'[%{FILEMODES} %{FILEUSERNAME} %{FILEGROUPNAME} %{FILENAMES}\n]\' -qp '.$this->filename.' |');
+		while (<GETPERMS>) {
+			chomp;
+			my ($mode, $owner, $group, $file) = split(/ /, $_, 4);
+			$mode = $mode & 07777; # remove filetype
+			my $uid = getpwnam($owner);
+			if (! defined $uid) {
+				print STDERR "WARNING: $file is owned by a user ($owner) not on this system; using root instead";
+				$uid=0;
+			}
+			my $gid = getgrnam($group);
+			if (! defined $gid) {
+				print STDERR "WARNING: $file is owned by a group ($group) not on this system; using group root instead";
+				$gid=0;
+			}
+			chown($uid, $gid, $file) || die "failed chowning $file to $uid\:$gid\: $!";
+			chmod($mode, $file) || die "failed changing mode of $file to $mode\: $!";
+		}
+	}
+
 	# When cpio extracts the file, any child directories that are
 	# present, but whose parent directories are not, end up mode 700.
 	# This next block corrects that to 755, which is more reasonable.
diff --git a/alien.pl b/alien.pl
index 1351df0..87d712e 100755
--- a/alien.pl
+++ b/alien.pl
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ unless (@ARGV) {
 if (! -w '.') {
 	die("Cannot write to current directory. Try moving to /tmp and re-running alien.\n");
 }
-if ($> ne 0) {
+if ($> != 0) {
 	if ($destformats{deb} && ! $generate && ! $single) {
 		die "Must run as root to convert to deb format (or you may use fakeroot).\n";
 	}
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 0bc0a54..2da16d8 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+alien (8.15) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Fix a longstanding bug I was only recently told about: When converting
+    from rpm, ignore the icky file owners and perms from the cpio archive,
+    and query rpm for the real set that it overrides in the control data
+    structure. Closes: #151546
+
+ -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Mon,  8 Jul 2002 20:52:48 -0400
+
 alien (8.14) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * Enabled Getopt::Long Bundling, see comment in alien.pl. Closes: #152148