when extracting http://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.0.0d.tar.gz with python3.2 on windows 7 extraction fails with 

  File "C:\python32\lib\tarfile.py", line 2175, in extract
    set_attrs=set_attrs)
  File "C:\python32\lib\tarfile.py", line 2259, in _extract_member
    self.makelink(tarinfo, targetpath)
  File "C:\python32\lib\tarfile.py", line 2359, in makelink
    targetpath)
  File "C:\python32\lib\tarfile.py", line 2251, in _extract_member
    self.makefile(tarinfo, targetpath)
  File "C:\python32\lib\tarfile.py", line 2292, in makefile
    target = bltn_open(targetpath, "wb")
IOError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument: 'R:\\tmp\\os\\openssl-1.0.0d\\apps\\md4.c'

the reason is that the symlink is broken

R:\>dir R:\tmp\os\openssl-1.0.0d\apps\md4.c
 Volume in drive R has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is E8F0-7223
 Directory of R:\tmp\os\openssl-1.0.0d\apps
02.01.2012  20:13    <SYMLINK>      md4.c [../crypto/md4/md4.c]

it must be backslashes instead of front slashes and that's why python cant access the file the symlink is pointing to.