diff --git a/plugins/elements/gstfilesink.c b/plugins/elements/gstfilesink.c
index 26fa1ea910..d2ad8b594d 100644
--- a/plugins/elements/gstfilesink.c
+++ b/plugins/elements/gstfilesink.c
@@ -102,6 +102,44 @@ enum
   PROP_LAST
 };
 
+/* Copy of glib's g_fopen due to win32 libc/cross-DLL brokenness: we can't
+ * use the 'file pointer' opened in glib (and returned from this function)
+ * in this library, as they may have unrelated C runtimes. */
+FILE *
+gst_fopen (const gchar * filename, const gchar * mode)
+{
+#ifdef G_OS_WIN32
+  wchar_t *wfilename = g_utf8_to_utf16 (filename, -1, NULL, NULL, NULL);
+  wchar_t *wmode;
+  FILE *retval;
+  int save_errno;
+
+  if (wfilename == NULL) {
+    errno = EINVAL;
+    return NULL;
+  }
+
+  wmode = g_utf8_to_utf16 (mode, -1, NULL, NULL, NULL);
+
+  if (wmode == NULL) {
+    g_free (wfilename);
+    errno = EINVAL;
+    return NULL;
+  }
+
+  retval = _wfopen (wfilename, wmode);
+  save_errno = errno;
+
+  g_free (wfilename);
+  g_free (wmode);
+
+  errno = save_errno;
+  return retval;
+#else
+  return fopen (filename, mode);
+#endif
+}
+
 static void gst_file_sink_dispose (GObject * object);
 
 static void gst_file_sink_set_property (GObject * object, guint prop_id,
@@ -334,13 +372,10 @@ gst_file_sink_open_file (GstFileSink * sink)
   if (sink->filename == NULL || sink->filename[0] == '\0')
     goto no_filename;
 
-  /* FIXME, can we use g_fopen here? some people say that the FILE object is
-   * local to the .so that performed the fopen call, which would not be us when
-   * we use g_fopen. */
   if (sink->append)
-    sink->file = fopen (sink->filename, "ab");
+    sink->file = gst_fopen (sink->filename, "ab");
   else
-    sink->file = fopen (sink->filename, "wb");
+    sink->file = gst_fopen (sink->filename, "wb");
   if (sink->file == NULL)
     goto open_failed;