from setuptools import setup, find_packages

setup(
    name='your_project_name',
    version='0.1',
    description='A description.',
    packages=find_packages(exclude=['ez_setup', 'tests', 'tests.*']),
    package_data={'': ['license.txt']},
    include_package_data=True,
    install_requires=[],
)

package_data={'': ['license.txt']}

package_data={'yourpackage': ['*.txt', 'path/to/resources/*.txt']}

from distutils.command.install import INSTALL_SCHEMES

for scheme in INSTALL_SCHEMES.values():
    scheme['data'] = scheme['purelib']

data_files=[('', ['LICENSE.txt'])]