diff --git a/util/update_copyrights b/util/update_copyrights
index 14faf3d79c..c07043915c 100644
--- a/util/update_copyrights
+++ b/util/update_copyrights
@@ -141,6 +141,38 @@ foreach $file (keys %file_types) {
                 next;
         }
 
+	if ($file eq "./CHANGES" || $file eq "./EXCLUDED" ||
+	    $file eq "./CHANGES.SE")
+	{
+		open(SOURCE, "<$file") || die "can't open $file: $!";
+		my $body = "";
+		while (<SOURCE>) {
+		# Process leading white space.
+		# Remove 1-7 spaces followed by a tab into a single
+		# tab if at start of line or proceeded by tabs.
+		s/^(\t*) {1,7}\t/$1\t/ while (/^\t* {1,7}\t/);
+		s/^(\s{0,3}\d*\.)\s(\[\w{1,5}\])\s+(\S+)/\1\t\2\t\t\3/;
+		s/^(\s{0,3}\d*\.)\s(\[\w{6,}\])\s+(\S+)/\1\t\2\t\3/;
+		# Convert 8 spaces into tabs if at start of line
+		# or preceeded by tabs.
+		s/^(\t*)        /$1\t/ while (/^\t*        /);
+		# Remove trailing white space.
+		s/[ \t]*$//;
+			$body = "$body$_";
+		}
+		$_ = $body;
+		open(TARGET, ">$file.new") || die "can't open $file.new: $!";
+		print TARGET $_;
+		close(TARGET);
+		close(SOURCE);
+		if (system("cmp -s $file.new $file") == 0) {
+			unlink("$file.new");
+		} else {
+			rename("$file.new", "$file")
+			  or die "rename($file.new, $file): $!";
+		}
+	}
+
         next if $type eq "X" or $type eq "BAT";
 
         $before_copyright = "";