I've verified that the documentation is correct under Python 2.3.  The behavior changed under Python 2.4 (and the docs were not updated).  I expect that the change in behavior is an unintended consequence of a change in the import system for 2.4.  There were 7 in 2.4, so I'm checking to see which did it.

FYI, our backward-compatibility policy would preclude a change like this, which is why I think it was unintentional.  That no one noticed implies that we did not have a unit test for the case and that folks really weren't relying on the behavior anyway (at least not enough to open a bug). :)  I suppose there could be an old bug on this, but if that the case then someone decided not to change it back.

Regardless, the docs should be fixed by removing the referenced paragraph.