Unexpected unicode characters inserted into code block

1. Create a page containing an html/xml code block containing the following content:

   <settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
     xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
     xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0
                         http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
   </settings>
   

2. Save the page
3. Double click on the code block, copy the contents into the clipboard.
4. Paste the clipboard into an editor (I use textpad) and save to ~/.m2/settings.xml.
5. Run any Maven command, causing it to use settings.xml. Maven will complain:

[FATAL] Non-parseable settings C:\.m2\settings.xml: start tag unexpected character \ua0 (position: START_DOCUMENT seen <settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"\r\n\ua0... @2:2)  @ C:\.m2\settings.xml, line 2, column 2

It seems that Confluence is inserting unicode characters into the clipboard (at the end of each line) which causes Maven to fail.

Expected behavior: The clipboard should contain the exact same characters that were put into the code block in the first place.

Workaround: Edit page, copy contents of code block into clipboard. Contents are now correct.

I am setting priority to critical because this issue results in data loss/corruption for the typical use-case.

Workaround:

As the No Format macro doesn't allow for double click selection, one potential solution is to disable the Code Macro (by going to Confluence Admin > Manage Add-ons > System Add-ons) and then create a user macro called something like 'code' with the template: <ac:macro ac:name="noformat"><ac:plain-text-body><![CDATA[ $body]]></ac:plain-text-body></ac:macro>, which means that whenever someone goes to create a code macro, they instead make a No Format macro.