diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/BaseBuilder.java b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/BaseBuilder.java
index 3e5314e32c9..46b312223a6 100644
--- a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/BaseBuilder.java
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/BaseBuilder.java
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ public class BaseBuilder
                 if (licensing.hasLicenses())
                 {
                     StartLog.debug("Requesting License Acknowledgement");
-                    if (!licensing.acknowledgeLicenses(startArgs))
+                    if (!licensing.acknowledgeLicenses())
                     {
                         StartLog.warn(EXITING_LICENSE_NOT_ACKNOWLEDGED);
                         System.exit(1);
diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Licensing.java b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Licensing.java
index 681407e6126..eb5149bc81d 100644
--- a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Licensing.java
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/Licensing.java
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ public class Licensing
         return !licenseMap.isEmpty();
     }
 
-    public boolean acknowledgeLicenses(StartArgs startArgs) throws IOException
+    public boolean acknowledgeLicenses() throws IOException
     {
         if (!hasLicenses())
         {
@@ -92,7 +92,11 @@ public class Licensing
                 throw new RuntimeException("Test Configuration Missing - Pre-specify answer to (" + PROP_ACK_LICENSES + ") in test case");
             }
 
-            licenseAck = startArgs.isYes("%nProceed (y/N)? ");
+            BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
+            System.err.printf("%nProceed (y/N)? ");
+            String response = input.readLine();
+
+            licenseAck = (Utils.isNotBlank(response) && response.toLowerCase().startsWith("y"));
         }
 
         return licenseAck;
diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/StartArgs.java b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/StartArgs.java
index 0e77f4e7877..145fb30b47c 100644
--- a/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/StartArgs.java
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/start/StartArgs.java
@@ -18,15 +18,14 @@
 
 package org.eclipse.jetty.start;
 
-import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
-import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -171,7 +170,6 @@ public class StartArgs
     private boolean licenseCheckRequired = false;
     private boolean testingMode = false;
 
-    private boolean yes = false;
     private boolean help = false;
     private boolean stopCommand = false;
     private boolean listModules = false;
@@ -183,8 +181,7 @@ public class StartArgs
     private boolean exec = false;
     private String exec_properties;
     private boolean approveAllLicenses = false;
-    private BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
-    
+
     public StartArgs()
     {
         classpath = new Classpath();
@@ -838,11 +835,6 @@ public class StartArgs
             run = false;
             return;
         }
-        
-        if ("--yes".equals(arg))
-        {
-            yes = true;
-        }
 
         if ("--debug".equals(arg) || arg.startsWith("--start-log-file"))
         {
@@ -1189,26 +1181,6 @@ public class StartArgs
         this.run = run;
     }
 
-    public boolean isYes(String promptFormat,Object... args)
-    {
-        System.err.printf(promptFormat,args);
-        if (yes)
-        {
-            System.err.printf("--yes%n");
-            return true;
-        }
-        try
-        {
-            String response = input.readLine();
-            return (Utils.isNotBlank(response) && response.toLowerCase().startsWith("y"));
-        }
-        catch(IOException e)
-        {
-            e.printStackTrace();
-            return false;
-        }
-    }
-    
     @Override
     public String toString()
     {
@@ -1224,5 +1196,4 @@ public class StartArgs
         builder.append("]");
         return builder.toString();
     }
-
 }
diff --git a/jetty-start/src/main/resources/org/eclipse/jetty/start/usage.txt b/jetty-start/src/main/resources/org/eclipse/jetty/start/usage.txt
index 9aa6b039adc..8a6d10ad2b7 100644
--- a/jetty-start/src/main/resources/org/eclipse/jetty/start/usage.txt
+++ b/jetty-start/src/main/resources/org/eclipse/jetty/start/usage.txt
@@ -115,10 +115,6 @@ Module Management:
                      ${jetty.base} and are willing to forego some of the
                      safety checks built into the jetty-start mechanism.
 
-  --yes            Automatically reply Yes to any questions asked by the
-                   module installation mechanism. Useful for running module
-                   commands from scripts.
-                   
 
 Startup / Shutdown Command Line:
 --------------------------------