Pod processors can decide whether they wish to support =begin sections or not.

For example pod2text will recognise =begin text but pod2html won't.

If you wish to generate a <pre> block with pod2html you should indent the paragraph:

The next section will  appear in a <pre> block

   some stuff goes here
   and more stuff on a second line
   and in a few cases, a few more things on a third line
[download]

--
John.