--- a/nbbuild/antsrc/org/netbeans/nbbuild/MakeUpdateDesc.java	Mon Mar 02 15:11:25 2009 -0500
+++ a/nbbuild/antsrc/org/netbeans/nbbuild/MakeUpdateDesc.java	Tue Mar 03 18:13:38 2009 +0300
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ 
 import org.apache.tools.ant.DirectoryScanner;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
+import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
@@ -317,7 +318,25 @@ 
                 pw.println ();
 		Map<String,Element> licenses = new HashMap<String,Element>();
                 Set<String> licenseNames = new HashSet<String>();
-                
+
+                String prefix = null;
+                if (dist_base != null) {
+                    // fix/enforce distribution URL base
+                    if (dist_base.equals(".")) {
+                        prefix = "";
+                    } else {
+                        prefix = dist_base + "/";
+                    }
+                }
+                final File licensesDir = new File(desc.getParentFile(), "licenses");
+                if(licensesDir.exists()) {
+                    for(File f : licensesDir.listFiles()) {
+                        f.delete();
+                    }
+                } else {
+                    licensesDir.mkdir();
+                }
+
                 for (Map.Entry<String,Collection<Module>> entry : modulesByGroup.entrySet()) {
                     String groupName = entry.getKey();
                     // Don't indent; embedded descriptions would get indented otherwise.
@@ -335,20 +354,24 @@ 
                         String name = manifest.getAttribute("OpenIDE-Module-Name");
                         if (name.length() > 0) {
                             log(" Adding module " + name + " (" + m.nbm.getAbsolutePath() + ")");
-                        }
-                        if (dist_base != null) {
-                            // fix/enforce distribution URL base
-                            String prefix;
-                            if (dist_base.equals(".")) {
-                                prefix = "";
-                            } else {
-                                prefix = dist_base + "/";
-                            }
+                        }                        
+                        if(prefix!=null) {
                             module.setAttribute("distribution", prefix + m.relativePath);
                         }
                         NodeList licenseList = module.getElementsByTagName("license");
                         if (licenseList.getLength() > 0) {
                             Element license = (Element) licenseList.item(0);
+                            String relativePath = "licenses/" + license.getAttribute("name") + ".license";
+                            String path = relativePath;
+                            if(prefix!=null) {
+                                path = prefix + relativePath;
+                            }
+                            license.setAttribute("url", path);
+                            String licenseText = license.getTextContent();
+                            license.setTextContent("");                            
+                            FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(new File(desc.getParentFile(), relativePath));
+                            fw.write(licenseText);
+                            fw.close();
                             // XXX ideally would compare the license texts to make sure they actually match up
                             licenses.put(license.getAttribute("name"), license);
                             module.removeChild(license);