What I'm trying to do is write a simple "Hello world" script in the root, that will search the tree for something that I include. Right now "utils.pm" exists in common\perl\utils\net\.

Perhaps you want to use the lib pragma? Something like:

use lib q#common\\perl\\utils\\net#;
[download]

sounds like it'd give you what you want. Remember to properly escape backslashes in your paths.