diff --git a/build.gradle.kts b/build.gradle.kts
index 4d9088fae0..45f20b59e9 100644
--- a/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/build.gradle.kts
@@ -114,8 +114,6 @@ tasks.named<RatTask>("rat").configure {
   excludes.add("**/*.iml")
   excludes.add("**/*.iws")
 
-  excludes.add("**/*.md")
-
   excludes.add("**/*.png")
   excludes.add("**/*.svg")
 
diff --git a/integration-tests/README.md b/integration-tests/README.md
index 9f803ebdab..b2014a3ae4 100644
--- a/integration-tests/README.md
+++ b/integration-tests/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,22 @@
+<!--
+  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.
+-->
+
 # Polaris Integration Tests
 
 ## Overview
diff --git a/quarkus/admin/README.md b/quarkus/admin/README.md
index 2ae9c7886b..f52d9e8354 100644
--- a/quarkus/admin/README.md
+++ b/quarkus/admin/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,22 @@
+<!--
+  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.
+-->
+
 # Polaris Admin Tool
 
 This module contains a maintenance tool for performing administrative tasks on the Polaris database.
@@ -43,4 +62,4 @@ Using the Docker image, you can run the admin tool with the following command:
 
 ```shell
 docker run --rm -it apache/polaris-admin-tool:<version> --help
-```
\ No newline at end of file
+```
diff --git a/quarkus/defaults/README.md b/quarkus/defaults/README.md
index 2eb4d22ee5..03c4bcf616 100644
--- a/quarkus/defaults/README.md
+++ b/quarkus/defaults/README.md
@@ -1,7 +1,26 @@
+<!--
+  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.
+-->
+
 # Quarkus Default Configuration
 
 This module contains default configurations related to the Quarkus runtime.
 
 It is isolated in its own artifact to simplify building custom Quarkus-based
 Polaris servers. Automatically inheriting all properties from the main
-`application.properties` file may not always be convenient.
\ No newline at end of file
+`application.properties` file may not always be convenient.
diff --git a/quarkus/server/README.md b/quarkus/server/README.md
index ef66d3616d..9921f47bee 100644
--- a/quarkus/server/README.md
+++ b/quarkus/server/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,22 @@
+<!--
+  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.
+-->
+
 # Polaris Quarkus Server
 
 This module contains the Quarkus-based Polaris server main artifact.
@@ -39,4 +58,4 @@ following command:
   -Dquarkus.container-image.group=apache \
   -Dquarkus.container-image.name=polaris-local \
   --no-build-cache
-```
\ No newline at end of file
+```
diff --git a/spec/README.md b/spec/README.md
index eacdee9b14..9461bdaa56 100644
--- a/spec/README.md
+++ b/spec/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,24 @@
+<!--
+  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.
+-->
+
 # Polaris API Specifications
+
 Polaris provides two sets of OpenAPI specifications:
 - `polaris-management-service.yml` - Defines the management APIs for using Polaris to create and manage Iceberg catalogs and their principals
 - `polaris-catalog-service.yaml` - Defines the specification for the Polaris Catalog API, which encompasses both the Iceberg REST Catalog API