diff --git a/src/main/java/org/glassfish/copyright/AbstractCopyright.java b/src/main/java/org/glassfish/copyright/AbstractCopyright.java
index 43ffac3..9f8cfe5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/glassfish/copyright/AbstractCopyright.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/glassfish/copyright/AbstractCopyright.java
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ public abstract class AbstractCopyright {
 	"permission notice:\n" +
 	"\n";
 
+    private static final String DONT_ALTER_HEADER = "DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS HEADER.";
+
     private static final String DEFAULT_CORRECT = "epl-copyright.txt";
     private static final String DEFAULT_ALTERNATE = "apache-copyright.txt";
     private static final String DEFAULT_BSD = "edl-copyright.txt";
@@ -93,6 +95,8 @@ public abstract class AbstractCopyright {
     private static Pattern bsdpat = Pattern.compile(
 	"(THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS)"+
 	"|(SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause)", Pattern.MULTILINE);
+    // pattern to detect DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS HEADER.
+    protected static Pattern doNotAlterPattern = Pattern.compile(DONT_ALTER_HEADER);
 
     protected static final String allrights = "All rights reserved.";
 
@@ -215,8 +219,17 @@ protected void checkCopyright(File file) throws IOException {
 		System.out.println(comment);
 		System.out.println("---");
 	    }
-	    if (c.warn && !c.quiet)
-		warnCopyright(file, r);
+        if (c.warn && !c.quiet) {
+            warnCopyright(file, r);
+        }
+
+        if (c.explicitExclude) {
+            if (isEditableCopyright(file, r)) {
+                err(file + ": EXCLUDED FROM REPAIR: contains: " + DONT_ALTER_HEADER);
+                return;
+            }
+        }
+
 	} finally {
 	    if (r != null)
 		r.close();
@@ -333,6 +346,24 @@ else if (lc == null)
     }
 
     /**
+     * Verifies if the file contains the message:
+     * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS HEADER.
+     *
+     * @param file
+     * @return
+     */
+    protected boolean isEditableCopyright(final File file, BufferedReader in) throws IOException {
+    String line;
+    while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
+        Matcher m2 = doNotAlterPattern.matcher(line);
+        if (m2.find()) {
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+    return true;
+    }
+
+	/**
      * Does the string match the pattern?
      */
     protected boolean matches(Pattern pat, String s) {
@@ -511,6 +542,11 @@ protected void warnCopyright(File file, BufferedReader in)
 		    System.out.println(file +
 				    ": WARNING: extra copyright: " + line);
 	    }
+
+	    Matcher m2 = doNotAlterPattern.matcher(line);
+	    if (m2.find()) {
+		    System.out.println(file + ": WARNING: contains: " + line);
+	    }
 	    /*
 	     * XXX - too many false positives for this one
 	    else if (line.indexOf("Copyright") >= 0)
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/glassfish/copyright/Copyright.java b/src/main/java/org/glassfish/copyright/Copyright.java
index d404c2d..c4cb307 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/glassfish/copyright/Copyright.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/glassfish/copyright/Copyright.java
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
  *
  * Usage: java -jar copyright.jar
  *		[-w] -[y] [-r] [-n] [-s] [-h] [-m] [-g] [-S] [-c] [-q] [-j] [-x]
- *		[-p] [-t] [-N] [-D] [-X pat] [-C file] [-A file] [-B file] [-P]
+ *		[-p] [-t] [-e] [-N] [-D] [-X pat] [-C file] [-A file] [-B file] [-P]
  *		[-v] [-V] [files ...]
  *
  * Options:
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
  *	-x	check XML syntax files
  *	-p	check properties syntax files
  *	-t	check other text files
+ *	-e	exclude files that contains DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES
  *	-N	normalize format of repaired copyright to match template
  *	-D	use dash instead of comma in years when repairing files
  *	-X	exclude files matching pat (substring only)
@@ -79,6 +80,7 @@ public class Copyright {
     public boolean doText = false;
     public boolean preserveCopyrights = false;
     public boolean verbose = false;
+    public boolean explicitExclude = false;
     public File correctTemplate;
     public List<File> alternateTemplates = new ArrayList<File>();
     public File correctBSDTemplate;
@@ -343,6 +345,8 @@ public static void main(String[] argv) throws Exception {
 		c.doProps = true;
 	    } else if (argv[optind].equals("-t")) {
 		c.doText = true;
+	    } else if (argv[optind].equals("-e")) {
+		c.explicitExclude = true;
 	    } else if (argv[optind].equals("-X")) {
 		String ex = argv[++optind];
 		if (ex.startsWith("@"))