diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c901e3697b..7bbc4dd327 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+<!--
+  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+  limitations under the License.
+-->
 # Apache NiFi
 
 Apache NiFi is a dataflow system based on the concepts of flow-based programming. It is currently apart of the Apache Incubator.
diff --git a/nifi-nar-maven-plugin/README.md b/nifi-nar-maven-plugin/README.md
index 941de2b1e5..1b554d9153 100644
--- a/nifi-nar-maven-plugin/README.md
+++ b/nifi-nar-maven-plugin/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+<!--
+  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+  limitations under the License.
+-->
 # Apache NiFi NAR Maven Plugin
 
 Apache NiFi NAR Maven Plugin helps to build NiFi Archive bundles to support the classloader isolation model of NiFi.
diff --git a/nifi-nar-maven-plugin/pom.xml b/nifi-nar-maven-plugin/pom.xml
index 79e437eeb5..6f46397de4 100644
--- a/nifi-nar-maven-plugin/pom.xml
+++ b/nifi-nar-maven-plugin/pom.xml
@@ -206,9 +206,9 @@
                 <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
                 <configuration>
                     <excludes>
-                        <exclude>nb-configuration.xml</exclude>
-                        <exclude>nbactions.xml</exclude>
-                        <exclude>DEPENDENCIES</exclude>
+                        <exclude>nb-configuration.xml</exclude> <!-- convenience exclude for netbeans users -->
+                        <exclude>nbactions.xml</exclude> <!-- convenience excludes for netbeans users -->
+                        <exclude>DEPENDENCIES</exclude> <!-- auto generated by maven while building sources zip and more -->
                     </excludes>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
diff --git a/nifi-site/README.md b/nifi-site/README.md
index 45276e1aa6..05cabd087e 100644
--- a/nifi-site/README.md
+++ b/nifi-site/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+<!--
+  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+  limitations under the License.
+-->
 # About
 [Apache NiFi project] (http://nifi.incubator.apache.org).
 
diff --git a/nifi/README.md b/nifi/README.md
index e077c0c791..70bf7ef822 100644
--- a/nifi/README.md
+++ b/nifi/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+<!--
+  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+  limitations under the License.
+-->
 # Apache NiFi
 
 Apache NiFi is a dataflow system based on the concepts of flow-based programming. It is currently apart of the Apache Incubator.
diff --git a/nifi/pom.xml b/nifi/pom.xml
index 499ffd62e5..fb73f9caab 100644
--- a/nifi/pom.xml
+++ b/nifi/pom.xml
@@ -956,15 +956,15 @@
                 <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
                 <configuration>
                     <excludes>
-                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/js/json2.js</exclude>
-                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/js/jquery/</exclude>
-                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/js/d3/d3.min.js</exclude>
-                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/js/codemirror/</exclude>
-                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/css/reset.css</exclude>
+                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/js/json2.js</exclude> <!-- license/notice accounted for -->
+                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/js/jquery/</exclude> <!-- license/notice accounted for -->
+                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/js/d3/d3.min.js</exclude> <!-- license/notice accounted for -->
+                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/js/codemirror/</exclude> <!-- license/notice accounted for -->
+                        <exclude>src/main/webapp/css/reset.css</exclude> <!-- license/notice accounted for -->
                         <exclude>src/test/resources/</exclude> <!-- Test datasets -->
-                        <exclude>nb-configuration.xml</exclude>
-                        <exclude>nbactions.xml</exclude>
-                        <exclude>DEPENDENCIES</exclude>
+                        <exclude>nb-configuration.xml</exclude><!-- courtesy exclude for netbeans users -->
+                        <exclude>nbactions.xml</exclude> <!-- courtesy exclude for netbeans users -->
+                        <exclude>DEPENDENCIES</exclude> <!-- auto generated file by maven while building sources.zip -->
                     </excludes>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>