diff --git a/BACKGROUND.md b/BACKGROUND.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 96a701c..0000000
--- a/BACKGROUND.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
-Background
-==========
-
-The impetus to create the Harvey Birdman Rule stemmed from three formative
-experiences: the quasi-public phase of the GPLv3 drafting process
-(January 2006--June 2007); the Project Harmony deliberations
-(ca. 2010-2011); and the ongoing activities of the European Legal
-Network run by Free Software Foundation Europe (ca 2007--present).
-
-HBR is a critique of the Chatham House Rule, which governed Project
-Harmony for most of its life and has officially governed the
-activities of ELN since 2008, if not inception.
-
-The name "Harvey Birdman Rule" was coined by Richard Fontana in an IRC
-channel conversation with Bradley Kuhn and others in (IIRC) 2012. The
-name is a reference to *Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law*. At least two
-post-hoc explanations for the naming have been given, but the real
-reason is a quasi-inside joke between Fontana and Kuhn, which Kuhn has
-probably forgotten and which wasn't really all that funny to begin
-with.
-
diff --git a/HBR.md b/HBR.md
index d6a98e3..9955d51 100644
--- a/HBR.md
+++ b/HBR.md
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
-Harvey Birdman Rule
-===================
+Hindering Backchannels Rule
+===========================
 
 A nontrivial number of interesting collaborative FLOSS legal endeavors
 have been operated in a relatively nontransparent and methodologically
 suboptimal manner. The following norms of project participation are
 designed to discourage this tendency. These norms shall be known
-informally as the "Harvey Birdman Rule":
+informally as the "Hindering Backchannels Rule":
 
 
   1. Contributions in the form of word-processing documents (even if
@@ -32,9 +32,9 @@ informally as the "Harvey Birdman Rule":
      quoted earlier mailing list postings by others are strongly
      discouraged.
 
-  5. Criticisms of, or proposed changes to, the Harvey Birdman Rule
+  5. Criticisms of, or proposed changes to, the Hindering Backchannels Rule
      are welcome, though such criticisms or proposals must themselves
-     comply with the Harvey Birdman Rule as it exists at the time the
+     comply with the Hindering Backchannels Rule as it exists at the time the
      criticism or proposal is made.
 
 [Chatham House Rule]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_House_Rule
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 57c456f..2838bf6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 hbr
 ===
 
-Harvey Birdman Rule (see: HBR.md)
+Hindering Backchannels Rule (see: HBR.md)
+
+# Historical Note
+
+HBR was formerly known (or expanded) as the 'Harvey Birdman Rule'.