An easy way to do this is to rename include.pl to include.pm, making it into a simple module, and declare the variables you want to use in script.pl in a "use vars" inside include.pm. E.g.
include.pm:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use vars qw(%SETTINGS);

$SETTINGS{name}="bob dobbs";
$SETTINGS{type}="surreal";

1;     # modules need to end with a true value
[download]

script.pl:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use include;

print "$_ : '$SETTINGS{$_}'\n" for (keys %SETTINGS);
[download]

This prints

name : 'bob dobbs'
type : 'surreal'
[download]