You will only get SNAPSHOT versions from remote repositories when you enabled them explicitly in the corresponding <repository> configuration [1].

[1] see 3.3.1 in http://sonatype.com/books/mvnref-book/reference/pom-relationships-sect-pom-syntax.html

"As a default setting, Maven will not check for SNAPSHOT releases on remote repositories. To depend on SNAPSHOT releases, users must explicitly enable the ability to download snapshots using a repository or pluginRepository element in the POM."


 <repository>
    <id>codehausSnapshots</id> 
    <name>Codehaus Snapshots</name>
    <snapshots>
       <enabled>true</enabled>
    </snapshots>
 ...