diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a574949b31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+Ricardo Garcia Gonzalez
+Danny Colligan
+Benjamin Johnson
+Vasyl' Vavrychuk
+Witold Baryluk
+Paweł Paprota
+Gergely Imreh
+Rogério Brito
+Philipp Hagemeister
+Sören Schulze
+Kevin Ngo
+Ori Avtalion
+shizeeg
+Filippo Valsorda
+Christian Albrecht
+Dave Vasilevsky
+Jaime Marquínez Ferrándiz
+Jeff Crouse
+Osama Khalid
+Michael Walter
+M. Yasoob Ullah Khalid
+Julien Fraichard
+Johny Mo Swag
+Axel Noack
+Albert Kim
+Pierre Rudloff
+Huarong Huo
+Ismael Mejía
+Steffan 'Ruirize' James
+Andras Elso
+Jelle van der Waa
+Marcin Cieślak
+Anton Larionov
+Takuya Tsuchida
+Sergey M.
+Michael Orlitzky
+Chris Gahan
+Saimadhav Heblikar
+Mike Col
+Oleg Prutz
+pulpe
+Andreas Schmitz
+Michael Kaiser
+Niklas Laxström
+David Triendl
+Anthony Weems
+David Wagner
+Juan C. Olivares
+Mattias Harrysson
+phaer
+Sainyam Kapoor
+Nicolas Évrard
+Jason Normore
+Hoje Lee
+Adam Thalhammer
+Georg Jähnig
+Ralf Haring
+Koki Takahashi
+Ariset Llerena
+Adam Malcontenti-Wilson
+Tobias Bell
+Naglis Jonaitis
+Charles Chen
+Hassaan Ali
+Dobrosław Żybort
+David Fabijan
+Sebastian Haas
+Alexander Kirk
+Erik Johnson
+Keith Beckman
+Ole Ernst
+Aaron McDaniel (mcd1992)
+Magnus Kolstad
+Hari Padmanaban
+Carlos Ramos
+5moufl
+lenaten
+Dennis Scheiba
+Damon Timm
+winwon
+Xavier Beynon
+Gabriel Schubiner
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/youtube_dl/__init__.py b/youtube_dl/__init__.py
index e2c6f38a93..7dc971884c 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/__init__.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/__init__.py
@@ -1,91 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 
-__authors__  = (
-    'Ricardo Garcia Gonzalez',
-    'Danny Colligan',
-    'Benjamin Johnson',
-    'Vasyl\' Vavrychuk',
-    'Witold Baryluk',
-    'Paweł Paprota',
-    'Gergely Imreh',
-    'Rogério Brito',
-    'Philipp Hagemeister',
-    'Sören Schulze',
-    'Kevin Ngo',
-    'Ori Avtalion',
-    'shizeeg',
-    'Filippo Valsorda',
-    'Christian Albrecht',
-    'Dave Vasilevsky',
-    'Jaime Marquínez Ferrándiz',
-    'Jeff Crouse',
-    'Osama Khalid',
-    'Michael Walter',
-    'M. Yasoob Ullah Khalid',
-    'Julien Fraichard',
-    'Johny Mo Swag',
-    'Axel Noack',
-    'Albert Kim',
-    'Pierre Rudloff',
-    'Huarong Huo',
-    'Ismael Mejía',
-    'Steffan \'Ruirize\' James',
-    'Andras Elso',
-    'Jelle van der Waa',
-    'Marcin Cieślak',
-    'Anton Larionov',
-    'Takuya Tsuchida',
-    'Sergey M.',
-    'Michael Orlitzky',
-    'Chris Gahan',
-    'Saimadhav Heblikar',
-    'Mike Col',
-    'Oleg Prutz',
-    'pulpe',
-    'Andreas Schmitz',
-    'Michael Kaiser',
-    'Niklas Laxström',
-    'David Triendl',
-    'Anthony Weems',
-    'David Wagner',
-    'Juan C. Olivares',
-    'Mattias Harrysson',
-    'phaer',
-    'Sainyam Kapoor',
-    'Nicolas Évrard',
-    'Jason Normore',
-    'Hoje Lee',
-    'Adam Thalhammer',
-    'Georg Jähnig',
-    'Ralf Haring',
-    'Koki Takahashi',
-    'Ariset Llerena',
-    'Adam Malcontenti-Wilson',
-    'Tobias Bell',
-    'Naglis Jonaitis',
-    'Charles Chen',
-    'Hassaan Ali',
-    'Dobrosław Żybort',
-    'David Fabijan',
-    'Sebastian Haas',
-    'Alexander Kirk',
-    'Erik Johnson',
-    'Keith Beckman',
-    'Ole Ernst',
-    'Aaron McDaniel (mcd1992)',
-    'Magnus Kolstad',
-    'Hari Padmanaban',
-    'Carlos Ramos',
-    '5moufl',
-    'lenaten',
-    'Dennis Scheiba',
-    'Damon Timm',
-    'winwon',
-    'Xavier Beynon',
-    'Gabriel Schubiner',
-)
-
 __license__ = 'Public Domain'
 
 import codecs