Really? From what I see it only html-escapes the characters, which is a step in the right direction, but not a solution. The following patch ought to do it (even though depod ain't perfect)

--- G:\perls\5.8.2\lib\pod\html.pm      2003-11-06 02:10:38.796875000 
+-0800
+++ C:\perl\lib\pod\html.pm     2004-01-07 00:18:19.984375000 -0800
@@ -400,8 +400,10 @@
            for (my $i = 0; $i < @poddata; $i++) {
                if ($poddata[$i] =~ /^=head1\s*NAME\b/m) {
                    for my $para ( @poddata[$i, $i+1] ) {
-                       last TITLE_SEARCH
-                           if ($Title) = $para =~ /(\S+\s+-+.*\S)/s;
+                           if( ($Title) = $para =~ /(\S+\s+-+.*\S)/s 
+){
+                    $Title = depod($Title);# PodMaster
+                    last TITLE_SEARCH;
+                }
                    }
                }

@@ -411,7 +413,11 @@
     if (!$Title and $Podfile =~ /\.pod\z/) {
        # probably a split pod so take first =head[12] as title
        for (my $i = 0; $i < @poddata; $i++) {
-           last if ($Title) = $poddata[$i] =~ /^=head[12]\s*(.*)/;
+           if( ($Title) = $poddata[$i] =~ /^=head[12]\s*(.*)/ ){
+            $Title = depod($Title);# PodMaster
+            last;
+        }
+
        }
        warn "adopted '$Title' as title for $Podfile\n"
            if $Verbose and $Title;
[download]

Here's a patch against perl-current

--- html.pm    2003-12-12 16:29:00.000000000 -0800
+++ newHtml.pm    2004-01-07 00:31:04.453125000 -0800
@@ -415,8 +415,9 @@
          for (my $i = 0; $i < @poddata; $i++) {
         if ($poddata[$i] =~ /^=head1\s*NAME\b/m) {
              for my $para ( @poddata[$i, $i+1] ) {
-            last TITLE_SEARCH
-                if ($Title) = $para =~ /(\S+\s+-+.*\S)/s;
+                if( ($Title) = $para =~ /(\S+\s+-+.*\S)/s ){
+                    $Title = depod($Title);# PodMaster
+                    last TITLE_SEARCH;
             }
         }
 
@@ -426,7 +427,10 @@
     if (!$Title and $Podfile =~ /\.pod\z/) {
     # probably a split pod so take first =head[12] as title
      for (my $i = 0; $i < @poddata; $i++) {
-        last if ($Title) = $poddata[$i] =~ /^=head[12]\s*(.*)/;
+        if( ($Title) = $poddata[$i] =~ /^=head[12]\s*(.*)/ ){
+            $Title = depod($Title);# PodMaster
+            last;
+        }
     }
     warn "adopted '$Title' as title for $Podfile\n"
         if $Verbose and $Title;
[download]