Do I need to "open" the file first and store it locally in memory?

No. I'm not sure what your problem is, but see LWP::Debug on how to turn on debugging. For related example see Re^2: POST'ing a large File with LWP::UserAgent

In reply to Re^3: Am I HTTP posting a file correctly? by Anonymous Monk
in thread Am I HTTP posting a file correctly? by mikelupo

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