Safest way to update from curl 6 to curl 7?

Question

When I try to install distribute (or others) via curl, I get the error below:
$curl http://python-distribute.org/distribute_setup.py | python3
dyld: Library not loaded: @rpath/libcurl.4.dylib
  Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin/curl
  Reason: Incompatible library version: curl requires version 7.0.0 or later, but libcurl.4.dylib provides version 6.0.0
So, onto installing curl 7:
This post describes how to do so (copied below):
1. Download curl sources: http://curl.haxx.se/download/curl-7.25.0.zip
2. Unarchive the zip file somewhere
3. Open a Terminal window and go to the directory containing curl sources
4. Type: CFLAGS=-m64 ./configure
5. Type: make
6. Type: sudo make install
But I am concerned about ramifications to other programs that might use curl. Is this a safe install? (Is there a better location to get it from?) Is there a way to update curl from within the Mac OS?

Answer 1

So, onto installing curl 7:
I take that you haven't checked the version of curl on your computer.
[ZSH-4.3.17] ~ % curl -V
curl 7.19.7 (universal-apple-darwin10.0) libcurl/7.19.7 OpenSSL/0.9.8r zlib/1.2.3
Protocols: tftp ftp telnet dict ldap http file https ftps
Features: GSS-Negotiate IPv6 Largefile NTLM SSL libz
I'm not sure that you need to update to the latest version. Anyways, I assuming that you have Xcode installed with the unix tools, version 7.26.0 builds with a simple ./configure, make, make install with a few errors. make test reports 4 test that failed.
[ZSH-4.3.17] ~ % $HOME/tmp/sandbox/curl-7.26.0/src/curl -V         
curl 7.26.0 (x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0) libcurl/7.26.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8r zlib/1.2.3
Protocols: dict file ftp ftps gopher http https imap imaps ldap ldaps pop3 pop3s rtsp smtp smtps telnet tftp
Features: IPv6 Largefile NTLM NTLM_WB SSL libz
The default location of curl will be /usr/local/bin and libcurl will be /usr/local/lib. Nothing is touched in the OS X distribution.