UnicodeDecodeError: 'charmap' codec can't decode byte 0x98 in position 16380: character maps to <undefined>

Suddenly I’m getting this error when trying to update my host list by running custom profile:

python updateHostsFile.py --auto --backup --extensions porn gambling fakenews

Full output:

Updating source data\adaway.org from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AdAway/adaway.github.io/master/hosts.txt
Updating source data\add.2o7Net from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FadeMind/hosts.extras/master/add.2o7Net/hosts
Updating source data\add.Dead from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FadeMind/hosts.extras/master/add.Dead/hosts
Updating source data\add.Risk from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FadeMind/hosts.extras/master/add.Risk/hosts
Updating source data\add.Spam from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FadeMind/hosts.extras/master/add.Spam/hosts
Updating source data\Badd-Boyz-Hosts from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mitchellkrogza/Badd-Boyz-Hosts/master/hosts
Updating source data\CoinBlockerList from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroDot1/CoinBlockerLists/master/hosts_browser
Updating source data\KADhosts from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/azet12/KADhosts/master/KADhosts.txt
Updating source data\malwaredomainlist.com from http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts.txt
Updating source data\mvps.org from http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt
Updating source data\someonewhocares.org from http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/zero/hosts
Updating source data\StevenBlack from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/data/StevenBlack/hosts
Updating source data\UncheckyAds from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FadeMind/hosts.extras/master/UncheckyAds/hosts
Updating source data\yoyo.org from https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?hostformat=hosts&mimetype=plaintext&useip=0.0.0.0
Updating source extensions\fakenews from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/marktron/fakenews/master/fakenews
Updating source extensions\gambling from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sinfonietta/hostfiles/master/gambling-hosts
Updating source extensions\porn\clefspeare13 from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Clefspeare13/pornhosts/master/0.0.0.0/hosts
Updating source extensions\porn\sinfonietta from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sinfonietta/hostfiles/master/pornography-hosts
Updating source extensions\porn\sinfonietta-snuff from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sinfonietta/hostfiles/master/snuff-hosts
Updating source extensions\social from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sinfonietta/hostfiles/master/social-hosts
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "updateHostsFile.py", line 1500, in <module>
    main()
  File "updateHostsFile.py", line 187, in main
    merge_file = create_initial_file()
  File "updateHostsFile.py", line 636, in create_initial_file
    write_data(merge_file, curFile.read())
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python36-32\lib\encodings\cp1257.py", line 23, in decode
    return codecs.charmap_decode(input,self.errors,decoding_table)[0]
UnicodeDecodeError: 'charmap' codec can't decode byte 0x98 in position 16380: character maps to <undefined>

It was working fine few weeks ago. Updated the program to the latest version, but still this error.

[funilrys]

This time Steven @StevenBlack it is because we do not touch/convert to idna the commented lines …

The issue is the following

# Office Telemetry Upload Reporting – ‘Heartbeart’ and error events that 
                                   ---^

[StevenBlack]

@gfyoung yup!

Closing.