diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index edfbc3f1b1..3b319efc0a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ DOCKER_CLI_IMAGE := gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker:20.10.14
 # Directory containing installed go binaries.
 BIN_DIR := $(GO_DIR)/bin
 
+# Vendered. Use "go get github.com/google/go-licenses" to update.
+GO_LICENSES := $(BIN_DIR)/go-licenses
+
 ADDLICENSE_VERSION := v1.1.1
 ADDLICENSE := $(BIN_DIR)/addlicense
 
@@ -355,8 +358,21 @@ lint-bash:
 	@./scripts/lint-bash.sh
 
 .PHONY: lint-license
-lint-license: buildenv-dirs
-	./scripts/lint-license.sh
+# Lints licenses for all packages, even ones just for testing.
+lint-license: "$(GO_LICENSES)"
+	@echo "\"$(GO_LICENSES)\" check \$$(go list all)"
+	@"$(GO_LICENSES)" check $(shell go list all)
+
+"$(GO_LICENSES)": buildenv-dirs
+	GOPATH="$(GO_DIR)" go install github.com/google/go-licenses
+
+.PHONY: install-go-licenses
+# install go-licenses (user-friendly target alias)
+install-go-licenses: "$(GO_LICENSES)"
+
+.PHONY: clean-go-licenses
+clean-go-licenses:
+	@rm -rf $(GO_LICENSES)
 
 "$(ADDLICENSE)": buildenv-dirs
 	GOPATH="$(GO_DIR)" go install github.com/google/addlicense@$(ADDLICENSE_VERSION)
diff --git a/scripts/lint-license.sh b/scripts/lint-license.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 4d8b93db33..0000000000
--- a/scripts/lint-license.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-# Copyright 2022 Google LLC
-#
-# 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 -euo pipefail
-
-# Install go-licenses binary from vendored source
-go install github.com/google/go-licenses
-
-chmod -R +rwx .output
-
-echo "Ensuring dependencies contain approved licenses. This may take up to 3 minutes."
-# Lints licenses for all packages, even ones just for testing.
-# Faster than evaluating the dependencies of each individual binary by about 3x.
-# We want word-splitting here rather than manually looping through the packages one-by-one.
-# shellcheck disable=SC2046
-go-licenses check $(go list all)