diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/event/EventBus.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/event/EventBus.scala
index f2013b1253..d2cb13b779 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/event/EventBus.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/event/EventBus.scala
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ trait LookupClassification { this: EventBus ⇒
  */
 trait SubchannelClassification { this: EventBus ⇒
 
-  implicit val subclassification: Subclassification[Classifier]
+  protected implicit def subclassification: Subclassification[Classifier]
 
   // must be lazy to avoid initialization order problem with subclassification
   private lazy val subscriptions = new SubclassifiedIndex[Classifier, Subscriber]()
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/event/EventStream.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/event/EventStream.scala
index 5e636593f2..f168656b15 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/event/EventStream.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/event/EventStream.scala
@@ -11,12 +11,18 @@ object EventStream {
   implicit def fromActorSystem(system: ActorSystem) = system.eventStream
 }
 
+/**
+ * An Akka EventStream is a pub-sub stream of events both system and user generated,
+ * where subscribers are ActorRefs and the channels are Classes and Events are any java.lang.Object.
+ * EventStreams employ SubchannelClassification, which means that if you listen to a Class,
+ * you'll receive any message that is of that type or a subtype.
+ */
 class EventStream(private val debug: Boolean = false) extends LoggingBus with SubchannelClassification {
 
   type Event = AnyRef
   type Classifier = Class[_]
 
-  val subclassification = new Subclassification[Class[_]] {
+  protected implicit val subclassification = new Subclassification[Class[_]] {
     def isEqual(x: Class[_], y: Class[_]) = x == y
     def isSubclass(x: Class[_], y: Class[_]) = y isAssignableFrom x
   }