I localized the error to line 248 in http://svn.python.org/view/python/
branches/release26-maint/Objects/fileobject.c?annotate=68135#248 
(brandl's change made 3 years ago)

  static PyObject *
  open_the_file(PyFileObject *f, char *name, char *mode)
  {
  [...]
    /* probably need to replace 'U' by 'rb' */
    newmode = PyMem_MALLOC(strlen(mode) + 3);
    if (!newmode) {
      PyErr_NoMemory();
      return NULL;
    }