i believe you can get LWP to work with HTTPS URLs by installing Crypt::SSLeay. it requires SSLeay (which is provided as part of the OpenSSL package).

i just installed that module and verified that i can GET the URL you are interested in.

also, there is a HTTP::Cookies::Netscape package as part of HTTP::Cookies that allows you to manipulate the Navigator cookie file without reinventing the wheel. you can use it like so:

use HTTP::Cookies;
$cookiejar = new HTTP::Cookies::Netscape(File => "$ENV{HOME}/.netscape
+/cookies");
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