diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/pom.xml b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/pom.xml
index ffe3d6f349b..bbc90e2aecf 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/pom.xml
@@ -473,7 +473,6 @@
         <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
         <configuration>
           <excludes>
-            <exclude>CHANGES.txt</exclude>
             <exclude>.idea/**</exclude>
             <exclude>src/main/conf/*</exclude>
             <exclude>src/main/docs/**</exclude>
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/pom.xml b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/pom.xml
index 5d7bbd95e30..7a27edbd153 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/pom.xml
@@ -369,8 +369,6 @@ http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
         <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
         <configuration>
           <excludes>
-            <exclude>CHANGES.txt</exclude>
-            <exclude>CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt</exclude>
             <exclude>.gitattributes</exclude>
             <exclude>.idea/**</exclude>
             <exclude>src/main/conf/*</exclude>
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/pom.xml b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/pom.xml
index 157229f6061..6ac5fdf279e 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/pom.xml
@@ -194,7 +194,6 @@
         <configuration>
           <excludes>
             <exclude>.eclipse.templates/</exclude>
-            <exclude>CHANGES.txt</exclude>
             <exclude>lib/jdiff/**</exclude>
           </excludes>
         </configuration>
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/pom.xml b/hadoop-yarn-project/pom.xml
index 4a0a81b5af5..7ddb31a43dc 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/pom.xml
@@ -104,15 +104,6 @@
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <groupId>org.apache.rat</groupId>
-        <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
-        <configuration>
-          <excludes>
-            <exclude>CHANGES.txt</exclude>
-          </excludes>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>