diff --git a/cmd/nginx/flags.go b/cmd/nginx/flags.go
index f037eb1b1..832042f06 100644
--- a/cmd/nginx/flags.go
+++ b/cmd/nginx/flags.go
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
 package main
 
 import (
diff --git a/docs/examples/customization/external-auth-headers/authsvc/authsvc.go b/docs/examples/customization/external-auth-headers/authsvc/authsvc.go
index c3016e2e3..7f254fc83 100644
--- a/docs/examples/customization/external-auth-headers/authsvc/authsvc.go
+++ b/docs/examples/customization/external-auth-headers/authsvc/authsvc.go
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
 package main
 
 import (
diff --git a/docs/examples/customization/external-auth-headers/echosvc/echosvc.go b/docs/examples/customization/external-auth-headers/echosvc/echosvc.go
index 7840cbc66..ba9702aa0 100644
--- a/docs/examples/customization/external-auth-headers/echosvc/echosvc.go
+++ b/docs/examples/customization/external-auth-headers/echosvc/echosvc.go
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
 package main
 
 import (
diff --git a/hack/custom-boilerplate.go.txt b/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.go.txt
similarity index 99%
rename from hack/custom-boilerplate.go.txt
rename to hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.go.txt
index 4b76f1fdd..59e740c1e 100644
--- a/hack/custom-boilerplate.go.txt
+++ b/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.go.txt
@@ -13,3 +13,4 @@ WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 limitations under the License.
 */
+
diff --git a/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.py b/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..7b7f0c868
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.py
@@ -0,0 +1,199 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+# Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+import argparse
+import difflib
+import glob
+import json
+import mmap
+import os
+import re
+import sys
+from datetime import date
+
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+parser.add_argument(
+    "filenames",
+    help="list of files to check, all files if unspecified",
+    nargs='*')
+
+rootdir = os.path.dirname(__file__) + "/../../"
+rootdir = os.path.abspath(rootdir)
+parser.add_argument(
+    "--rootdir", default=rootdir, help="root directory to examine")
+
+default_boilerplate_dir = os.path.join(rootdir, "hack/boilerplate")
+parser.add_argument(
+    "--boilerplate-dir", default=default_boilerplate_dir)
+
+parser.add_argument(
+    "-v", "--verbose",
+    help="give verbose output regarding why a file does not pass",
+    action="store_true")
+
+args = parser.parse_args()
+
+verbose_out = sys.stderr if args.verbose else open("/dev/null", "w")
+
+def get_refs():
+    refs = {}
+
+    for path in glob.glob(os.path.join(args.boilerplate_dir, "boilerplate.*.txt")):
+        extension = os.path.basename(path).split(".")[1]
+
+        ref_file = open(path, 'r')
+        ref = ref_file.read().splitlines()
+        ref_file.close()
+        refs[extension] = ref
+
+    return refs
+
+def file_passes(filename, refs, regexs):
+    try:
+        f = open(filename, 'r')
+    except Exception as exc:
+        print("Unable to open %s: %s" % (filename, exc), file=verbose_out)
+        return False
+
+    data = f.read()
+    f.close()
+
+    basename = os.path.basename(filename)
+    extension = file_extension(filename)
+    if extension != "":
+        ref = refs[extension]
+    else:
+        ref = refs[basename]
+
+    # remove build tags from the top of Go files
+    if extension == "go":
+        p = regexs["go_build_constraints"]
+        (data, found) = p.subn("", data, 1)
+
+    # remove shebang from the top of shell files
+    if extension == "sh":
+        p = regexs["shebang"]
+        (data, found) = p.subn("", data, 1)
+
+    data = data.splitlines()
+
+    # if our test file is smaller than the reference it surely fails!
+    if len(ref) > len(data):
+        print('File %s smaller than reference (%d < %d)' %
+              (filename, len(data), len(ref)),
+              file=verbose_out)
+        return False
+
+    # trim our file to the same number of lines as the reference file
+    data = data[:len(ref)]
+
+    p = regexs["year"]
+    for d in data:
+        if p.search(d):
+            print('File %s is missing the year' % filename, file=verbose_out)
+            return False
+
+    # Replace all occurrences of the regex "CURRENT_YEAR|...|2016|2015|2014" with "YEAR"
+    p = regexs["date"]
+    for i, d in enumerate(data):
+        (data[i], found) = p.subn('YEAR', d)
+        if found != 0:
+            break
+
+    # if we don't match the reference at this point, fail
+    if ref != data:
+        print("Header in %s does not match reference, diff:" % filename, file=verbose_out)
+        if args.verbose:
+            print(file=verbose_out)
+            for line in difflib.unified_diff(ref, data, 'reference', filename, lineterm=''):
+                print(line, file=verbose_out)
+            print(file=verbose_out)
+        return False
+
+    return True
+
+def file_extension(filename):
+    return os.path.splitext(filename)[1].split(".")[-1].lower()
+
+skipped_dirs = ['Godeps', 'third_party', '_gopath', '_output', '.git', 'cluster/env.sh',
+                "vendor", "test/e2e/generated/bindata.go", "hack/boilerplate/test"]
+
+def normalize_files(files):
+    newfiles = []
+    for pathname in files:
+        if any(x in pathname for x in skipped_dirs):
+            continue
+        newfiles.append(pathname)
+    for i, pathname in enumerate(newfiles):
+        if not os.path.isabs(pathname):
+            newfiles[i] = os.path.join(args.rootdir, pathname)
+    return newfiles
+
+def get_files(extensions):
+    files = []
+    if len(args.filenames) > 0:
+        files = args.filenames
+    else:
+        for root, dirs, walkfiles in os.walk(args.rootdir):
+            # don't visit certain dirs. This is just a performance improvement
+            # as we would prune these later in normalize_files(). But doing it
+            # cuts down the amount of filesystem walking we do and cuts down
+            # the size of the file list
+            for d in skipped_dirs:
+                if d in dirs:
+                    dirs.remove(d)
+
+            for name in walkfiles:
+                pathname = os.path.join(root, name)
+                files.append(pathname)
+
+    files = normalize_files(files)
+    outfiles = []
+    for pathname in files:
+        basename = os.path.basename(pathname)
+        extension = file_extension(pathname)
+        if extension in extensions or basename in extensions:
+            outfiles.append(pathname)
+    return outfiles
+
+def get_regexs():
+    regexs = {}
+    # Search for "YEAR" which exists in the boilerplate, but shouldn't in the real thing
+    regexs["year"] = re.compile( 'YEAR' )
+    # dates can be 2014, 2015, 2016, ..., CURRENT_YEAR, company holder names can be anything
+    years = range(2014, date.today().year + 1)
+    regexs["date"] = re.compile( '(%s)' % "|".join(map(lambda l: str(l), years)) )
+    # strip // +build \n\n build constraints
+    regexs["go_build_constraints"] = re.compile(r"^(// \+build.*\n)+\n", re.MULTILINE)
+    # strip #!.* from shell scripts
+    regexs["shebang"] = re.compile(r"^(#!.*\n)\n*", re.MULTILINE)
+    return regexs
+
+def main():
+    regexs = get_regexs()
+    refs = get_refs()
+    filenames = get_files(refs.keys())
+
+    for filename in filenames:
+        if not file_passes(filename, refs, regexs):
+            print(filename, file=sys.stdout)
+
+    return 0
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+  sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.py.txt b/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.py.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a2e72e598
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.py.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+# Copyright YEAR The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
diff --git a/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.sh.txt b/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.sh.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..384f325ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/boilerplate/boilerplate.sh.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Copyright YEAR The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
diff --git a/hack/update-codegen.sh b/hack/update-codegen.sh
index aed761bf9..dfe7cd546 100755
--- a/hack/update-codegen.sh
+++ b/hack/update-codegen.sh
@@ -34,6 +34,3 @@ ${CODEGEN_PKG}/generate-groups.sh "deepcopy" \
   k8s.io/ingress-nginx/pkg k8s.io/ingress-nginx/pkg \
   .:ingress \
   --output-base "$(dirname ${BASH_SOURCE})/../../.."
-
-# To use your own boilerplate text append:
-#   --go-header-file ${SCRIPT_ROOT}/hack/custom-boilerplate.go.txt
diff --git a/hack/verify-boilerplate.sh b/hack/verify-boilerplate.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..2f8705b6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/verify-boilerplate.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Copyright 2014 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
+
+boilerDir="${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/boilerplate"
+boiler="${boilerDir}/boilerplate.py"
+
+files_need_boilerplate=($(${boiler} "$@"))
+
+# Run boilerplate check
+if [[ ${#files_need_boilerplate[@]} -gt 0 ]]; then
+  for file in "${files_need_boilerplate[@]}"; do
+    echo "Boilerplate header is wrong for: ${file}"
+  done
+
+  exit 1
+fi
diff --git a/pkg/file/file.go b/pkg/file/file.go
index 17d194aa6..25887c52b 100644
--- a/pkg/file/file.go
+++ b/pkg/file/file.go
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
 package file
 
 import (
diff --git a/pkg/file/file_test.go b/pkg/file/file_test.go
index c091fa491..3256f4aa5 100644
--- a/pkg/file/file_test.go
+++ b/pkg/file/file_test.go
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
-Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors.
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ func TestSHA1(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	sha := SHA1("")
-	if sha != ""{
+	if sha != "" {
 		t.Fatalf("expected an empty sha but returned %s", sha)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/pkg/ingress/controller/process/nginx.go b/pkg/ingress/controller/process/nginx.go
index 4ffaaa7d1..df1861e4a 100644
--- a/pkg/ingress/controller/process/nginx.go
+++ b/pkg/ingress/controller/process/nginx.go
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
 package process
 
 import (
diff --git a/pkg/ingress/controller/tcp.go b/pkg/ingress/controller/tcp.go
index ec4a5cbcc..efcc83077 100644
--- a/pkg/ingress/controller/tcp.go
+++ b/pkg/ingress/controller/tcp.go
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
 package controller
 
 import (
diff --git a/pkg/ingress/defaults/main.go b/pkg/ingress/defaults/main.go
index 40598028c..998067bf5 100644
--- a/pkg/ingress/defaults/main.go
+++ b/pkg/ingress/defaults/main.go
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
 package defaults
 
 import "net"
diff --git a/test/e2e/e2e.go b/test/e2e/e2e.go
index ccce57410..b98766c60 100644
--- a/test/e2e/e2e.go
+++ b/test/e2e/e2e.go
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 /*
-Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors.
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
diff --git a/test/e2e/e2e_test.go b/test/e2e/e2e_test.go
index 339b1d23a..8de277bc5 100644
--- a/test/e2e/e2e_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/e2e_test.go
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 /*
-Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors.
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
diff --git a/test/e2e/framework/test_context.go b/test/e2e/framework/test_context.go
index fc357b2fa..1d713cd0d 100644
--- a/test/e2e/framework/test_context.go
+++ b/test/e2e/framework/test_context.go
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 /*
 Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
diff --git a/test/e2e/framework/util.go b/test/e2e/framework/util.go
index 6fc3b642f..907539e32 100644
--- a/test/e2e/framework/util.go
+++ b/test/e2e/framework/util.go
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 /*
 Copyright 2014 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.