The escaping of form parameters has different rules and cannot be done with a simple pass. You need to escape it by constructing a URI using URI. So, your example is bogus from the get-go.

In particular, what you want is:

$site = 'http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl'; 
$user = 'Clive ;-)'; # my test case for whitespace and funny chrs 
use URI;
my $uri = URI->new($site);
$uri->query_form( node => $user );
print $uri->as_string;
[download]

which prints

http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node=Clive+%3B-)
[download]

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker