diff --git a/playbooks/container-builder-copy-logs.yaml b/playbooks/container-builder-copy-logs.yaml
index 1e0dbb80f..6f1f4f452 100644
--- a/playbooks/container-builder-copy-logs.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/container-builder-copy-logs.yaml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
           mkdir -p logs
           # copy system log
           sudo cp -r /var/log logs/system_log
+          sudo rm -f logs/system_log/README
           if which journalctl ; then
               # the journal gives us syslog() and kernel output, so is like
               # a concatenation of the above.