This explanation came from the .NET help files but what they are referring to is how you explicitly need to to turn on the ability to edit the records by calling AddNew or BeginEdit. You can't just modify the records without doing that first. The AllowNew, AllowEdit, and AllowDelete determine if that type of editing is even possible.

>>A DataView is, by default, a read-only view of data. However, you can use the DataView to add, delete, or modify rows of data in the underlying table by setting one of three Boolean properties of the DataView. These properties are AllowNew, AllowEdit, and AllowDelete. They are set to true by default, and enable you to specify whether you can modify the data in the underlying DataTable of the DataView.
>
> Maybe I'm missing something, but how can a DataView be read-only by default, when it's AllowNew, AllowEdit, and AllowDelete are set to .T.?