"File not found by glob" when installing from http:// with special characters

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #450811 +++

Description of problem:
When I try to install package from http:// when there is a "~" in the URL, I
get "File not found by glob" error message. Installing from "normal" URLs works
fine.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
rpm-4.4.2.3-2.fc9.x86_64

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. # rpm -ivh 'http://server/~user/repo/package-3.1.0.320-1.i386.rpm'

Actual results:
error: File not found by glob: http://server/~user/repo/
package-3.1.0.320-1.i386.rpm

Expected results:
package is installed

Additional info:
Package itself is ok and installable:
# wget 'http://server/~user/repo/package-3.1.0.320-1.i386.rpm'
...
2008-06-11 09:04:08 (108 MB/s) - `package-3.1.0.320-1.i386.rpm' saved
# rpm -ivh package-3.1.0.320-1.i386.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
   1:package ########################################### [100%]

--- Additional comment from <email address hidden> on 2009-03-03 18:57:55 EDT ---

Can the reporter please give a real url for me to test this with?

--- Additional comment from <email address hidden> on 2009-03-04 07:21:59 EDT ---

Hello,
you can test on:

rpm -ivh 'http://people.redhat.com/~varekova/gzip-1.3.3-16.rhel4.test.i386.rpm'

I was not able to reproduce on the F10, but was on RHEL-5.3.

This works in later rpm versions because remote requests are handled by specialized, external http-client (curl). Attempting to fix it in a dead-end codebase is just not worth the trouble at this point, especially as using eg wget/curl for the task is just as easy.