diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/docs/ref/settings.rst b/scrapy/trunk/docs/ref/settings.rst
index 002a8d128..f35461379 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/docs/ref/settings.rst
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/docs/ref/settings.rst
@@ -656,7 +656,7 @@ can be scheduled per domain.
 ROBOTSTXT_OBEY
 --------------
 
-Default: ``True``
+Default: ``False``
 
 Scope: ``scrapy.contrib.downloadermiddleware.robotstxt``
 
diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
index 334f6ff60..96c1220d6 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/default_settings.py
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN = 8     # max simultaneous requests per domain
 RETRY_TIMES = 2 # initial response + 2 retries = 3 requests
 RETRY_HTTP_CODES = ['500', '503', '504', '400', '408', '200']
 
-ROBOTSTXT_OBEY = True
+ROBOTSTXT_OBEY = False
 
 SCHEDULER = 'scrapy.core.scheduler.Scheduler'
 SCHEDULER_ORDER = 'BFO'   # available orders: BFO (default), DFO