diff -ruN mysql-4.1.10.orig/sql/sql_string.cc mysql-4.1.10/sql/sql_string.cc
--- mysql-4.1.10.orig/sql/sql_string.cc	2005-02-13 05:37:32.000000000 +0900
+++ mysql-4.1.10/sql/sql_string.cc	2005-02-22 10:16:34.000000000 +0900
@@ -250,13 +250,17 @@
       (e.g. for UCS-2) must be done
 */
 
+extern my_bool opt_skip_conversion;
 bool String::needs_conversion(uint32 arg_length,
 			      CHARSET_INFO *from_cs,
 			      CHARSET_INFO *to_cs,
 			      uint32 *offset)
 {
+  if (opt_skip_conversion) { return FALSE; }
   *offset= 0;
-  if ((to_cs == &my_charset_bin) || 
+  if ( (strncasecmp(to_cs->csname, "binary", 6) == 0) ||
+       (strncasecmp(from_cs->csname, "binary", 6) == 0) ||
+      (to_cs == &my_charset_bin) || 
       (to_cs == from_cs) ||
       my_charset_same(from_cs, to_cs) ||
       ((from_cs == &my_charset_bin) &&
diff -ruN mysql-4.1.10.orig/sql/mysqld.cc mysql-4.1.10/sql/mysqld.cc
--- mysql-4.1.10.orig/sql/mysqld.cc	2005-02-13 05:37:30.000000000 +0900
+++ mysql-4.1.10/sql/mysqld.cc	2005-02-22 10:16:34.000000000 +0900
@@ -266,6 +266,7 @@
 
 
 /* Global variables */
+my_bool opt_skip_conversion = 0;
 
 bool opt_log, opt_update_log, opt_bin_log, opt_slow_log;
 bool opt_error_log= IF_WIN(1,0);
@@ -4122,7 +4123,8 @@
   OPT_TIME_FORMAT,
   OPT_DATETIME_FORMAT,
   OPT_LOG_QUERIES_NOT_USING_INDEXES,
-  OPT_DEFAULT_TIME_ZONE
+  OPT_DEFAULT_TIME_ZONE,
+  OPT_SKIP_CONVERSION
 };
 
 
@@ -4130,6 +4132,8 @@
 
 struct my_option my_long_options[] =
 {
+  {"skip-conversion", OPT_SKIP_CONVERSION,  "Don't convert strings.",
+   (gptr*) &opt_skip_conversion, (gptr*) &opt_skip_conversion, 0, GET_BOOL, NO_ARG, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0},
   {"help", '?', "Display this help and exit.", 
    (gptr*) &opt_help, (gptr*) &opt_help, 0, GET_BOOL, NO_ARG, 0, 0, 0, 0,
    0, 0},