diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 0dc6e2cc13..8cf60a428a 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,8 +1,35 @@
-#include *.txt
-include versioneer.py
-include pvlib/_version.py
-recursive-include pvlib/data *
+include MANIFEST.in
+include AUTHORS.md
+include LICENSE
 include README.md
-include pvlib/spa_c_files/*.h
+include setup.py
+
+# include most everything under pvlib by default
+# better to package too much than not enough
+graft pvlib
+
+# we included pvlib files needed to compile NREL SPA code in graft above,
+# now we exclude the NREL code itself to comply with their license
+global-exclude */spa.c
+global-exclude */spa.h
+prune pvlib/spa_c_files/build
 
-#recursive-include docs *.txt
+graft docs
+prune docs/sphinx/build
+prune docs/sphinx/source/generated
+# all doc figures created by doc build
+prune docs/sphinx/source/savefig
+
+global-exclude __pycache__
+global-exclude *.pyc
+global-exclude *.pyo
+global-exclude *.pyd
+global-exclude *.so
+global-exclude *~
+global-exclude .DS_Store
+global-exclude .git*
+global-exclude \#*
+global-exclude .ipynb_checkpoints
+
+include versioneer.py
+include pvlib/_version.py
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.6.0.rst b/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.6.0.rst
index a7e0bab2a2..b26f02cb57 100644
--- a/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.6.0.rst
+++ b/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.6.0.rst
@@ -156,6 +156,8 @@ Bug fixes
 * Fixed bug in tracking.singleaxis that mistakenly assigned nan values when
   the Sun was still above the horizon. No effect on systems with axis_tilt=0.
   (:issue:`569`)
+* Source distribution did not contain LICENSE file. Added LICENSE, AUTHORS.md,
+  and some docs to MANIFEST. (:issue:`579`)
 * Patch SPA C-files to fix timezone macro name clash with `pyconfig.h`. (:issue:`168`)