diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index 2a86da185..bff5714ea 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ Frank Harnack
 Frederic Lavigne
 Gary S. Weaver
 Gautam Guliani
+Georges-Etienne Legendre
 Gero Vermaas
 Gerrit Riessen
 Glenn McAllister
diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index f02e95d93..914a89466 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -175,6 +175,9 @@ Fixed bugs:
 * Project not set on ChainReaderHelpers used by the Redirector.
   Bugzilla report 37958.
 
+* Copy task would fail on locked (or otherwise uncopyable) files even if
+  failonerror set to false. Bugzilla report 38175.
+
 Other changes:
 --------------
 * Minor performance improvements Bugzilla report 37777
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Copy.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Copy.java
index e35cd19b1..4bc0bc4dc 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Copy.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Copy.java
@@ -799,7 +799,10 @@ public class Copy extends Task {
                         if (targetFile.exists() && !targetFile.delete()) {
                             msg += " and I couldn't delete the corrupt " + toFile;
                         }
-                        throw new BuildException(msg, ioe, getLocation());
+                        if (failonerror) {
+                            throw new BuildException(msg, ioe, getLocation());
+                        }
+                        log(msg, Project.MSG_ERR);
                     }
                 }
             }