Index: urllib2.py
===================================================================
--- urllib2.py	(revision 88915)
+++ urllib2.py	(working copy)
@@ -189,7 +189,9 @@
     def __init__(self, url, data=None, headers={},
                  origin_req_host=None, unverifiable=False):
         # unwrap('<URL:type://host/path>') --> 'type://host/path'
-        self.__original = unwrap(url)
+        # quote: percent encode url, fixing lame server errors for e.g,
+        # like space within url paths.
+        self.__original = quote(unwrap(url), safe="%/:=&?~#+!$,;'@()*[]|")
         self.type = None
         # self.__r_type is what's left after doing the splittype
         self.host = None
@@ -373,6 +375,9 @@
     def open(self, fullurl, data=None, timeout=socket._GLOBAL_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT):
         # accept a URL or a Request object
         if isinstance(fullurl, basestring):
+            # percent encode url, fixing lame server errors for e.g,
+            # like space within url paths.
+            fullurl = quote(fullurl, safe="%/:=&?~#+!$,;'@()*[]|")
             req = Request(fullurl, data)
         else:
             req = fullurl