Yes, you sure can. Use LWP::UserAgent:

use LWP::UserAgent;
my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
my $req = new HTTP::Request 'GET', 'http://www.you.com/dir';
$req->authorization_basic('userid', 'password');
my $result = $ua->request($req)->as_string;
[download]

Read the POD for the module, as well as lwp-cook for other options/uses.

Cheers,
KM