Try it without the parentheses around the open command. It will also help if you check the value of $! on die(), as it holds the error that caused the script to die. This worked fine for me:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

open READ,"test.csv" or die "Cannot open test.csv\n: $!";
while ($line = <READ>) {
    print STDOUT "line = $line";
}
[download]

-Logan
"What do I want? I'm an American. I want more."