diff --git a/copy-firmware.sh b/copy-firmware.sh
index dcb3b92c7229..e16424dc16f3 100755
--- a/copy-firmware.sh
+++ b/copy-firmware.sh
@@ -70,6 +70,9 @@ $verbose "Checking that WHENCE file is formatted properly"
 
 # shellcheck disable=SC2162 # file/folder name can include escaped symbols
 grep -E '^(RawFile|File):' WHENCE | sed -E -e 's/^(RawFile|File): */\1 /;s/"//g' | while read k f; do
+    case "$f" in
+        */README) continue;;
+    esac
     install -d "$destdir/$(dirname "$f")"
     $verbose "copying/compressing file $f$compext"
     if test "$compress" != "cat" && test "$k" = "RawFile"; then