Yep, the patch at #6267 is an extension of this one except for the last 
chunk where I also check if sockets are ssl-enabled. I am not sure why 
it was needed. It also may have been already fixed somewhere else. As 
this bug doesn't have any tests attached it may be considered closed for 
now.

Would be nice to see these fixes in Python 2.6 though as it is the 
default version that seems to go in Ubuntu 9.10

+        import socket
+        if not socket._have_ssl:
             raise NotImplementedError(
                 "your version of httplib doesn't support HTTPS"
                 )