diff --git a/build.properties b/build.properties
index 615055aebcf..72e5426259b 100644
--- a/build.properties
+++ b/build.properties
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ test.src = ./src/test
 docs.dir = ./docs
 lib.dir = ./lib
 dist.dir=${final.name}
+basedir = .
 
 # javadoc packages
 packages=org.apache.lucene.*
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 648787ac387..63308ee7a47 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -292,8 +292,6 @@
     <mkdir dir="${dist.dir}/docs"/>
     <mkdir dir="${dist.dir}/docs/api"/>
 
-    <copy file="${basedir}/COPYING.txt" todir="${dist.dir}"/>
-    <copy file="${basedir}/README.txt" todir="${dist.dir}"/>
     <copy todir="${dist.dir}/docs">
       <fileset dir="${docs.dir}"/>
     </copy>