diff --git a/util/copyrights b/util/copyrights
index 36e8e57f45..b2e9cad9da 100644
--- a/util/copyrights
+++ b/util/copyrights
@@ -1459,17 +1459,6 @@
 ./doc/misc/sort-options.pl			PERL	2007,2012,2016,2018,2019,2020
 ./doc/misc/static-stub.zoneopt			X	2018,2019,2020
 ./doc/misc/stub.zoneopt				X	2018,2019,2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.0.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.1.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.2.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.3.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.4.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.5.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.6.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.7.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.8.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-9.16.9.rst			RST	2020
-./doc/notes/notes-current.rst			RST	2020
 ./docutil/HTML_COPYRIGHT			X	2001,2004,2016,2018,2019,2020
 ./docutil/MAN_COPYRIGHT				X	2001,2004,2016,2018,2019,2020
 ./docutil/patch-db2latex-duplicate-template-bug	X	2007,2018,2019,2020
diff --git a/util/merge_copyrights b/util/merge_copyrights
index 9109ff929e..6530b4a339 100644
--- a/util/merge_copyrights
+++ b/util/merge_copyrights
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ while (<CHANGES>) {
 	       \.conf\.in$ |    # configuration files
 	       /(dnssafe|openssl)/.*\.[ch]$ |	# imported
 	       doc/(draft|expired|rfc)/ |	# imported
+	       doc/notes/ |     # release notes doesn't really need copyright
 	       \.*in$ |         # the generated documentation doesn't really need copyright
 	       grammar\.rst$ |  # -"-
 	       zoneopt\.rst$ |  # -"-