> but rcs and co are not effective on a file that's not already in *my*
> rcs repository.  and after i do the initial check-in, the keywords get
> changed.

No. the keywords are not changed by check-in.
See the result of:
	% ci the-file
	% rcs -ko the-file
	% co -l the-file
	  (or, "co -u the-file")

Am I misunderstanding your problem ?
--
soda