Index: Include/pyerrors.h
===================================================================
--- Include/pyerrors.h	(revision 74825)
+++ Include/pyerrors.h	(working copy)
@@ -11,6 +11,12 @@
     PyObject *dict;
     PyObject *args;
     PyObject *message;
+    /*
+     * A flag which tracks whether the the message attribute has been
+     * explicitly set, rather than just initialized in the deprecated way by
+     * __init__.
+     */
+    int message_set;
 } PyBaseExceptionObject;
 
 typedef struct {
Index: Objects/exceptions.c
===================================================================
--- Objects/exceptions.c	(revision 74825)
+++ Objects/exceptions.c	(working copy)
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
         return NULL;
     /* the dict is created on the fly in PyObject_GenericSetAttr */
     self->message = self->dict = NULL;
+    self->message_set = 0;
 
     self->args = PyTuple_New(0);
     if (!self->args) {
@@ -301,12 +302,14 @@
 static PyObject *
 BaseException_get_message(PyBaseExceptionObject *self)
 {
-	int ret;
-	ret = PyErr_WarnEx(PyExc_DeprecationWarning,
-				"BaseException.message has been deprecated as "
-				"of Python 2.6", 1);
-	if (ret < 0)
-		return NULL;
+	if (!self->message_set) {
+		int ret = 0;
+		ret = PyErr_WarnEx(PyExc_DeprecationWarning,
+			"BaseException.message has been deprecated as "
+			"of Python 2.6", 1);
+		if (ret < 0)
+			return NULL;
+	}
 
 	Py_INCREF(self->message);
 	return self->message;
@@ -315,15 +318,10 @@
 static int
 BaseException_set_message(PyBaseExceptionObject *self, PyObject *val)
 {
-	int ret;
-	ret = PyErr_WarnEx(PyExc_DeprecationWarning,
-				"BaseException.message has been deprecated as "
-				"of Python 2.6", 1);
-	if (ret < 0)
-		return -1;
 	Py_INCREF(val);
 	Py_DECREF(self->message);
 	self->message = val;
+	self->message_set = 1;
 	return 0;
 }
 
Index: Lib/test/test_exceptions.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_exceptions.py	(revision 74825)
+++ Lib/test/test_exceptions.py	(working copy)
@@ -303,6 +303,30 @@
                                                   'pickled "%r", attribute "%s"' %
                                                   (e, checkArgName))
 
+
+    def testDeprecatedMessageAttribute(self):
+        # Accessing BaseException.message and relying on its value set by
+        # BaseException.__init__ triggers a deprecation warning.
+        exc = BaseException("foo")
+        with warnings.catch_warnings(record=True) as w:
+            self.assertEquals(exc.message, "foo")
+        self.assertEquals(len(w), 1)
+        self.assertEquals(w[0].category, DeprecationWarning)
+        self.assertEquals(
+            str(w[0].message),
+            "BaseException.message has been deprecated as of Python 2.6")
+
+
+    def testRegularMessageAttribute(self):
+        # Accessing BaseException.message after explicitly setting a value
+        # for it does not trigger a deprecation warning.
+        exc = BaseException("foo")
+        exc.message = "bar"
+        with warnings.catch_warnings(record=True) as w:
+            self.assertEquals(exc.message, "bar")
+        self.assertEquals(len(w), 0)
+
+
     def testSlicing(self):
         # Test that you can slice an exception directly instead of requiring
         # going through the 'args' attribute.