There is an error in your code. See perldoc perlop
or see perlop

q/STRING/
'STRING'
A single-quoted, literal string. A backslash represents a
backslash unless followed by the delimiter or another backslash,
in which case the delimiter or backslash is interpolated.


So '\' don't is what you expect. You have to write '\\' instead.
Yeah, it's tricky. Note that

print '\\\machine';
[download]

is the same as

print '\\\\machine';
[download]

but not

print '\\machine';
[download]

You can use q;\\; if you want to obfuscate more.

Regards

Hopes