#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

open BEGIN, "/etc/passwd" or die;
print while <BEGIN>;
__END__
[download]

The program compiles and runs without problems.

Abigail

Thanks for letting me know that Abigail. I didn't realize you could use reserved words in filehandles. I guess it's just more of a recommendation that you don't use them. Thanks again.

Well, I carefully worded it "all-caps words with a special meaning". BEGIN isn't a reserved word. However, you can use reserved words as file handles, as long as you quote them when appropriate:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

open print => "/etc/passwd" or die;
print while <print>;

__END__
[download]

If you replace the => with a comma, the code above won't compile.

Abigail