Cannot pass credentials in RSS URL

[Sam]

Using URL of the format http://username:<email address hidden>/feed causes script to crash:

 @ Downloading: http://username:<email address hidden>/feed
 ! Unable to download: http://username:<email address hidden>/feed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/wallpaper-changer/random-wallpaper.py", line 47, in <module>
    filename, wp = lister.getRandom()
  File "/usr/share/wallpaper-changer/lister.py", line 51, in getRandom
    list = self.getItems()
  File "/usr/share/wallpaper-changer/lister.py", line 81, in getItems
    self._list = self.getList()
  File "/usr/share/wallpaper-changer/lister.py", line 242, in getList
    xmldoc = minidom.parseString(feedxml)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/xml/dom/minidom.py", line 1925, in parseString
    return expatbuilder.parseString(string)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py", line 940, in parseString
    return builder.parseString(string)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py", line 223, in parseString
    parser.Parse(string, True)
TypeError: Parse() argument 1 must be string or read-only buffer, not None