diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/license/licensor/LicenseSpecs.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/license/licensor/LicenseSpecs.java
index 5ec2cb845f0..512dd3415df 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/license/licensor/LicenseSpecs.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/license/licensor/LicenseSpecs.java
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
 import org.elasticsearch.license.core.DateUtils;
 import org.elasticsearch.license.core.ESLicense;
-import org.elasticsearch.license.core.LicensesCharset;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.text.ParseException;
@@ -43,10 +42,6 @@ public class LicenseSpecs {
         return builder.build();
     }
 
-    public static Set<ESLicense> fromSource(String content) throws IOException, ParseException {
-        return fromSource(content.getBytes(LicensesCharset.UTF_8));
-    }
-
     public static Set<ESLicense> fromSource(byte[] bytes) throws IOException, ParseException {
         return fromXContents(XContentFactory.xContent(bytes).createParser(bytes));
     }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/license/licensor/tools/LicenseGeneratorTool.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/license/licensor/tools/LicenseGeneratorTool.java
index 9ec3694d394..07e9b572d8a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/license/licensor/tools/LicenseGeneratorTool.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/license/licensor/tools/LicenseGeneratorTool.java
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
 import org.elasticsearch.license.core.ESLicense;
 import org.elasticsearch.license.core.ESLicenses;
+import org.elasticsearch.license.core.LicensesCharset;
 import org.elasticsearch.license.licensor.ESLicenseSigner;
 import org.elasticsearch.license.licensor.LicenseSpecs;
 
@@ -47,7 +48,7 @@ public class LicenseGeneratorTool {
             switch (command) {
                 case "--license":
                     String licenseInput = args[++i];
-                    licenseSpecs.addAll(LicenseSpecs.fromSource(licenseInput));
+                    licenseSpecs.addAll(LicenseSpecs.fromSource(licenseInput.getBytes(LicensesCharset.UTF_8)));
                     break;
                 case "--licenseFile":
                     File licenseFile = new File(args[++i]);