Colons not allowed in query string. A bug?

nginx-0.7.19 is not allowing colons in the query string. It errors
with “invalid port in upstream”. nginx-0.6.32 does allow colons.

Is this a bug or an intentional change to conform to some specification?

Here’s some debug logging.

invalid port in upstream "beta.bloxodb.org/cgi-bin/dataPlotter.pl?
type

Tbe
::BloxoLineages
::Ver1
&project_id=BloxoDB&id=TGME49_111690&model=bloxo&fmt=png&thumb=1",
client: 218.89.112.152, server: beta.bloxodb.org, request: "GET /cgi-
bin/dataPlotter.pl?
type

Tbe
::BloxoLineages
::Ver1&project_id=BloxoDB&id=TGME49_111690&model=bloxo&fmt=png&thumb=1
HTTP/1.1", host: “beta.bloxodb.org
http finalize request: 500, "/cgi-bin/dataPlotter.pl?
type

Tbe
::BloxoLineages
::Ver1&project_id=BloxoDB&id=TGME49_111690&model=bloxo&fmt=png&thumb=1"
http special response: 500, "/cgi-bin/dataPlotter.pl?
type

Tbe
::BloxoLineages
::Ver1&project_id=BloxoDB&id=TGME49_111690&model=bloxo&fmt=png&thumb=1"
http set discard body
HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error