diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d76110a606..a154653f25 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -36,6 +36,15 @@ the copyright text, you can include a `url` property:
       "url": "http://remysharp.com"
     }
 
+And if you want your license to appear as plain text, just add the
+`format` property (currently only `txt` and `html` are supported):
+
+    {
+      "copyright": "Remy Sharp, http://remysharp.com",
+      "url": "http://remysharp.com",
+      "format": "txt"
+    }
+
 Finally you can also include a license version target in the JSON file
 as explained in the next section.
 
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index 1c9c4fe955..1f2513b61c 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London'); // stop php from whining
 
+$format = 'html';
 $user_file = preg_replace('/\.mit-license\..*$/', '', $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"]);
 
 // sanitise user (not for DNS, but for file reading, I don't know
@@ -15,15 +16,35 @@
   if (property_exists($user, 'url')) {
     $holder = '<a href="'.$user->url.'">' . $holder . '</a>';
   }
+
+  if (property_exists($user, 'format')) {
+    if (strtolower($user->format) == 'txt') {
+      $format = 'txt';
+    }
+  }
 } else {
   $holder = "&lt;copyright holders&gt;";
 }
 
 // grab sha from request uri
-$request = $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
+$request_uri = explode('/', $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
+
+$request = array_pop($request_uri);
+// in case there's a trailing slash (unlikely)
+if ($request == '') $request = array_pop($request_uri);
+
+// url file format overrides user preference
+if (stripos($request, 'license') === 0) {
+  $format = array_pop(explode('.', strtolower($request))) == 'txt' ? 'txt' : 'html';
+
+  // move down to the next part of the request
+  $request = array_pop($request_uri);
+}
+
+// check if there's a SHA on the url and read this to switch license versions
 $sha = '';
 if ($request != "" && $request != "/" && $request != "/index.php") {
-  $sha = preg_replace('/[^a-f0-9]/', '', $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
+  $sha = preg_replace('/[^a-f0-9]/', '', $request);
 } else if (isset($user) && property_exists($user, 'version')) {
   $sha = preg_replace('/[^a-f0-9]/', '', $user->version);
 }
@@ -46,6 +67,16 @@
 
 // replace info tag and display
 $info = date('Y') . ' ' . $holder;
-echo str_replace('{{info}}', $info, $license);
+$license = str_replace('{{info}}', $info, $license);
+
+// if we want text format, strip out the license from the article tag
+// and then strip any other tags in the license.
+if ($format == 'txt') {
+  $license = array_shift(explode('</article>', array_pop(explode('<article>', $license))));
+  $license = preg_replace('/<[^>]*>/', '', trim($license));
+  header('content-type: plain/text');
+}
+
+echo $license;
 
 ?>