I have found a little bug (i guess). See that:

a=danilo
echo $a | cut -c -5 # shows danil

a=dánilo
echo $a | cut -c 5 # shows dáni

The option -b equal works. The cut is ignoring the letters with acentuation.

I read in infopages this:

`-c CHARACTER-LIST'
`--characters=CHARACTER-LIST'
     Select for printing only the characters in positions listed in
     CHARACTER-LIST.  The same as `-b' for now, but
     internationalization will change that.  Tabs and backspaces are
     treated like any other character; they take up 1 character.  If an
     output delimiter is specified, (see the description of
     `--output-delimiter'), then output that string between ranges of
     selected bytes.

"The same as `-b' for now, but
     internationalization will change that." this solves my problem? How it
works?

Thanks,

Danilo S. Morăes