software-center crashed with UnicodeDecodeError in __str__(): 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc8 in position 2: ordinal not in range(128)

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. I can not reproduce this using software-center 4.1.22, opening software-center with apt:love works, the only problem is that in the description LOVE is displayed as L?VE. Can you still reproduce this issue, does software-center still crash for you when opening with apt-love?
---
Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Using apt: from a browser will make Software Center to freeze, or randomly crash... last time I checked, freezed Software Center...

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Please upload all these fixes from the proposed SRU to precise first. Thanks!

Hello George, or anyone else affected,

Accepted software-center into oneiric-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

Thanks Martin.
I've been told to follow this bug but my problem was slightly different. When I clicked the big banner with an app, nothing happened. After this update, clicking the banner brings me to the app description. For me it is fixed.

Thanks for your comment, mmiicc! That's a possible effect of this bug actually, so it sounds like this update has fixed it for you.

I have verified using the French locale that version 5.0.3.1 of software-center in oneiric-proposed fixes this issue for me. Thanks!

This bug was fixed in the package software-center - 5.0.3.1

---------------
software-center (5.0.3.1) oneiric-proposed; urgency=low

  * softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/views/purchaseview.py:
    - set transient parent when creating a new webview to better
      support PayPal (LP: #893988)

software-center (5.0.3) oneiric-proposed; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * Improve icon extenstion detection, some iconnames are already
    without extenstion with still with a "." in the name, some are not.
    This fixes the icons display for wesnoth and xpuzzles (LP: #878707)

  [ Gary Lasker ]
  * softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/app.py:
    - fix potential dbus crash when accessing the list of previous
      purchases (LP: #863898)
  * softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/session/navhistory.py:
    - fix UnicodeDecodeError in NavigationItem __str__ (LP: #847050)
  * softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/panes/softwarepane.py:
    - fix UnicodeDecodeError in DisplayState __str__ (LP: #873046)
  * softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/models/pendingstore.py:
    - fix UnicodeDecodeError in _render_status_text (LP: #862029)
  * softwarecenter/distro/__init__.py:
    - fix UnicodeDecodeError in get_install_warning_text (LP: #857416)
  * softwarecenter/db/application.py:
    - fix UnicodeDecodeError in __str__ (LP: #871088)

  [ Gabor Kelemen ]
  * Fix misplaced parentheses and localize the app name
    using the app-install-data-ubuntu domain. LP: #880257
  * Display the success message properly localized. LP: #872823
  * Display failure message properly localized. LP: #872812
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:10:25 +0100

Bug is reappeared again in Ubuntu Quantal Beta 1

Software Center stop opening after first open of suggested app in non-English locale