Expires and 'non-cacheable'

In 14.9.3,
[...]
Many HTTP/1.0 cache implementations will treat an Expires value that is less
than or equal to the response Date value as being equivalent to the
Cache-Control response directive 'no-cache'. If an HTTP/1.1 cache receives
such a response, and the response does not include a Cache-Control header
field, it SHOULD consider the response to be non-cacheable in order to
retain compatibility with HTTP/1.0 servers.

Would it be safe to assume 'non-cacheable' can be interpreted as 'stale'
here? (everything else says it is)



Mark Nottingham
Internet Project Manager
Merrill Lynch Australasia (Melbourne)