diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 5e406cd5..897362e0 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ AC_CHECK_FUNCS(fdwalk)
 AC_CHECK_HEADER([sys/xattr.h], [], [AC_MSG_ERROR([You must have sys/xattr.h from glibc])])
 AC_CHECK_HEADER([sys/capability.h], have_caps=yes, [AC_MSG_ERROR([sys/capability.h header not found])])
 
-PKG_CHECK_MODULES(BASE, [glib-2.0 >= $GLIB_REQS gio-2.0 gio-unix-2.0 libsoup-2.4 ostree-1 >= $OSTREE_REQS json-glib-1.0])
+PKG_CHECK_MODULES(BASE, [glib-2.0 >= $GLIB_REQS gio-2.0 gio-unix-2.0 libsoup-2.4 ostree-1 >= $OSTREE_REQS json-glib-1.0 libxml-2.0 >= 2.4])
 
 dnl ************************
 dnl *** check for libelf ***
diff --git a/doc/flatpak-manifest.xml b/doc/flatpak-manifest.xml
index 8056dd7d..052a18a8 100644
--- a/doc/flatpak-manifest.xml
+++ b/doc/flatpak-manifest.xml
@@ -207,6 +207,15 @@
                     <term><option>rename-icon</option> (string)</term>
                     <listitem><para>Any icon with this name will be renamed to a name based on id during the cleanup phase. Note that this is the icon name, not the full filenames, so it should not include a filename extension. </para></listitem>
                 </varlistentry>
+                <varlistentry>
+                    <term><option>appdata-license</option> (string)</term>
+                    <listitem><para>Replace the appdata
+                    project_license field with this string. This is
+                    useful as the upstream license is typically only
+                    about the application itself, whereas the bundled
+                    app can contain other licenses
+                    too. </para></listitem>
+                </varlistentry>
                 <varlistentry>
                     <term><option>copy-icon</option> (boolean)</term>
                     <listitem><para>If rename-icon is set, keep a copy of the old icon file.</para></listitem>
diff --git a/src/builder-manifest.c b/src/builder-manifest.c
index d48ff625..1659b7bf 100644
--- a/src/builder-manifest.c
+++ b/src/builder-manifest.c
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@
 #include "builder-post-process.h"
 #include "builder-extension.h"
 
+#include <libxml/parser.h>
+
 #include "libglnx/libglnx.h"
 
 #define LOCALES_SEPARATE_DIR "share/runtime/locale"
@@ -83,6 +85,7 @@ struct BuilderManifest
   char          **tags;
   char           *rename_desktop_file;
   char           *rename_appdata_file;
+  char           *appdata_license;
   char           *rename_icon;
   gboolean        copy_icon;
   char           *desktop_file_name_prefix;
@@ -147,6 +150,7 @@ enum {
   PROP_TAGS,
   PROP_RENAME_DESKTOP_FILE,
   PROP_RENAME_APPDATA_FILE,
+  PROP_APPDATA_LICENSE,
   PROP_RENAME_ICON,
   PROP_COPY_ICON,
   PROP_DESKTOP_FILE_NAME_PREFIX,
@@ -189,6 +193,7 @@ builder_manifest_finalize (GObject *object)
   g_strfreev (self->tags);
   g_free (self->rename_desktop_file);
   g_free (self->rename_appdata_file);
+  g_free (self->appdata_license);
   g_free (self->rename_icon);
   g_free (self->desktop_file_name_prefix);
   g_free (self->desktop_file_name_suffix);
@@ -399,6 +404,10 @@ builder_manifest_get_property (GObject    *object,
       g_value_set_string (value, self->rename_appdata_file);
       break;
 
+    case PROP_APPDATA_LICENSE:
+      g_value_set_string (value, self->appdata_license);
+      break;
+
     case PROP_RENAME_ICON:
       g_value_set_string (value, self->rename_icon);
       break;
@@ -621,6 +630,11 @@ builder_manifest_set_property (GObject      *object,
       self->rename_appdata_file = g_value_dup_string (value);
       break;
 
+    case PROP_APPDATA_LICENSE:
+      g_free (self->appdata_license);
+      self->appdata_license = g_value_dup_string (value);
+      break;
+
     case PROP_RENAME_ICON:
       g_free (self->rename_icon);
       self->rename_icon = g_value_dup_string (value);
@@ -905,6 +919,13 @@ builder_manifest_class_init (BuilderManifestClass *klass)
                                                         "",
                                                         NULL,
                                                         G_PARAM_READWRITE));
+  g_object_class_install_property (object_class,
+                                   PROP_APPDATA_LICENSE,
+                                   g_param_spec_string ("appdata-license",
+                                                        "",
+                                                        "",
+                                                        NULL,
+                                                        G_PARAM_READWRITE));
   g_object_class_install_property (object_class,
                                    PROP_RENAME_ICON,
                                    g_param_spec_string ("rename-icon",
@@ -1543,6 +1564,7 @@ builder_manifest_checksum_for_cleanup (BuilderManifest *self,
   builder_cache_checksum_strv (cache, self->cleanup_commands);
   builder_cache_checksum_str (cache, self->rename_desktop_file);
   builder_cache_checksum_str (cache, self->rename_appdata_file);
+  builder_cache_checksum_compat_str (cache, self->appdata_license);
   builder_cache_checksum_str (cache, self->rename_icon);
   builder_cache_checksum_boolean (cache, self->copy_icon);
   builder_cache_checksum_str (cache, self->desktop_file_name_prefix);
@@ -2028,6 +2050,62 @@ strcatv (char **strv1,
     return retval;
 }
 
+static gboolean
+rewrite_appdata (GFile *file,
+                 const char *license,
+                 GError **error)
+{
+  g_autofree gchar *data = NULL;
+  gsize data_len;
+  g_autoptr(xmlDoc) doc = NULL;
+  xml_autofree xmlChar *xmlbuff = NULL;
+  int buffersize;
+  xmlNode *root_element, *component_node;
+
+  if (!g_file_load_contents (file, NULL, &data, &data_len, NULL, error))
+    return FALSE;
+
+  doc = xmlReadMemory (data, data_len, NULL, NULL,  0);
+  if (doc == NULL)
+    return flatpak_fail (error, _("Error parsing appstream"));
+
+  root_element = xmlDocGetRootElement (doc);
+
+  for (component_node = root_element; component_node; component_node = component_node->next)
+    {
+      xmlNode *sub_node = NULL;
+      xmlNode *license_node = NULL;
+
+      if (component_node->type != XML_ELEMENT_NODE ||
+          strcmp ((char *)component_node->name, "component") != 0)
+        continue;
+
+      for (sub_node = component_node->children; sub_node; sub_node = sub_node->next)
+        {
+          if (sub_node->type != XML_ELEMENT_NODE ||
+              strcmp ((char *)sub_node->name, "project_license") != 0)
+            continue;
+
+          license_node = sub_node;
+          break;
+        }
+
+      if (license_node)
+        xmlNodeSetContent(license_node, (xmlChar *)license);
+      else
+        xmlNewChild(component_node, NULL, (xmlChar *)"project_license", (xmlChar *)license);
+    }
+
+  xmlDocDumpFormatMemory (doc, &xmlbuff, &buffersize, 1);
+
+  if (!g_file_set_contents (flatpak_file_get_path_cached (file),
+                            (gchar *)xmlbuff, buffersize,
+                            error))
+    return FALSE;
+
+  return TRUE;
+}
+
 gboolean
 builder_manifest_cleanup (BuilderManifest *self,
                           BuilderCache    *cache,
@@ -2120,6 +2198,12 @@ builder_manifest_cleanup (BuilderManifest *self,
             return FALSE;
         }
 
+      if (self->appdata_license != NULL && self->appdata_license[0] != 0)
+        {
+          if (!rewrite_appdata (appdata_file, self->appdata_license, error))
+            return FALSE;
+        }
+
       if (self->rename_desktop_file != NULL)
         {
           g_autoptr(GFile) applications_dir = g_file_resolve_relative_path (app_root, "share/applications");
diff --git a/src/builder-utils.h b/src/builder-utils.h
index 48120f3a..c3960f4d 100644
--- a/src/builder-utils.h
+++ b/src/builder-utils.h
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@
 #include <libsoup/soup.h>
 #include <json-glib/json-glib.h>
 
+#include <libxml/tree.h>
+
 G_BEGIN_DECLS
 
 typedef struct BuilderUtils BuilderUtils;
@@ -75,6 +77,18 @@ GParamSpec * builder_serializable_find_property_with_error (JsonSerializable *se
 void builder_set_term_title (const gchar *format,
                              ...) G_GNUC_PRINTF (1, 2);
 
+static inline void
+xml_autoptr_cleanup_generic_free (void *p)
+{
+  void **pp = (void**)p;
+  if (*pp)
+    xmlFree (*pp);
+}
+
+#define xml_autofree _GLIB_CLEANUP(xml_autoptr_cleanup_generic_free)
+
+G_DEFINE_AUTOPTR_CLEANUP_FUNC (xmlDoc, xmlFreeDoc)
+
 G_END_DECLS
 
 #endif /* __BUILDER_UTILS_H__ */