problem with user_external_login_register

It looks like user_external_login_register use incorrect assumptions about what will happen if you call user_load_by_name for none-existing user name. In modules/user/user.module:2087 we have following code:

function user_external_login_register($name, $module) {
  $account = user_load_by_name($name);
  if (!$account->uid) {
    // Register this new user.
   ...
  }
}

Problem is that for "new user" user_load_by_name will return FALSE.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think user_external_login_register should be fixed along this lines:

function user_external_login_register($name, $module) {
  $account = user_load_by_name($name);
  if ( $account === FALSE || ( !$account->uid)) {
    // Register this new user.
   ...
  }
}