Answering myself. They can.

   On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 11:55 PM, Paulo Levi <[1]i30817@gmail.com>
   wrote:

     Also, can a italic markup span more than one line/paragraph?

   On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 10:41 PM, Paulo Levi <[2]i30817@gmail.com>
   wrote:

     Right now i'm preparing the filtering of the license information in
     from books downloaded from project Gutenberg, and i have 2 doubts:
     1) I understand i can replace the license with this string ""This
     Ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
     no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use
     it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included in this
     eBook or online at [3]www.gutenberg.net"" is that enough?
     2) Is there any other markup beside the '_' to represent italic
     boundaries? And does this markup only occur in txt files?

References

   1. mailto:i30817@gmail.com
   2. mailto:i30817@gmail.com
   3. http://www.gutenberg.net/