I disagree, spiritway. This is an excerpt from the Artistic license for Perl which you linked to:

The scripts and library files supplied as input to or produced as output from the programs of this Package do not automatically fall under the copyright of this Package, but belong to whomever generated them, and may be sold commercially, and may be aggregated with this Package. If such scripts or library files are aggregated with this Package via the so-called "undump" or "unexec" methods of producing a binary executable image, then distribution of such an image shall neither be construed as a distribution of this Package nor shall it fall under the restrictions of Paragraphs 3 and 4, provided that you do not represent such an executable image as a Standard Version of this Package.

(emphasis added)

People may and do write Perl programs and charge money for them. xmerlin is well within his rights to want to protect his intellectual property, to either make money with himself or to prevent others from appropriating his right to make money.

Open source is free as in speech, not as in beer. ;)