From https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2013Jan/0080.html:
- RESOLVED: the url() function can be escaped, update CSS2.1 errata and css3-syntax
This was fixed in CSS 2.1 errata. (Note the errata bogusly cites the 2013-01-30 minutes; the resolution is actually in 2013-01-09 as linked above.)
Note this section is becoming informative per WG resolution (#2224 (comment)).