diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 2ef1bb0..b849bd3 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@
 - Don't crash if the local `dataset_description.json` file is empty when trying
   to resume an aborted download.
 
+- We now by default exclude certain files from the download that are known to
+  be invalid for specific datasets. Once the datasets have been fixed on
+  OpenNeuro, we will revert these exclusions.
+
 ## 2021.8
 
 - Retry downloads if a `ReadError` has occurred.
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index c1a7121..c37f75f 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 include LICENSE
 include README.md
+include openneuro/default_excludes.json
diff --git a/openneuro/default_excludes.json b/openneuro/default_excludes.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..264350d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/openneuro/default_excludes.json
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+[
+  {
+    "datasetName": "ds003104",
+    "excludeFiles": [
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/01/mri/aparc+aseg.mgz",
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/01/mri/aparc.DKTatlas+aseg.mgz",
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/01/mri/aparc.a2009s+aseg.mgz"
+    ]
+  },
+  {
+    "datasetName": "ds000248",
+    "excludeFiles": [
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/fsaverage/mri/aparc.a2005s+aseg.mgz",
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/fsaverage/mri/aparc+aseg.mgz",
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/fsaverage/mri/aparc.a2009s+aseg.mgz",
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/fsaverage/xhemi/mri/aparc+aseg.mgz",
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/sub-01/mri/aparc+aseg.mgz",
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/sub-01/mri/aparc.DKTatlas+aseg.mgz",
+      "derivatives/freesurfer/subjects/sub-01/mri/aparc.a2009s+aseg.mgz"
+    ]
+  }
+]
diff --git a/openneuro/download.py b/openneuro/download.py
index 04b9d21..d71d621 100644
--- a/openneuro/download.py
+++ b/openneuro/download.py
@@ -29,6 +29,11 @@
 from . import __version__
 from .config import default_base_url
 
+DEFAULT_EXCLUDES = json.loads(
+    (Path(__file__).parent / 'default_excludes.json')
+    .read_text(encoding='utf-8')
+)
+
 
 if sys.stdout.encoding.lower() == 'utf-8':
     stdout_unicode = True
@@ -573,6 +578,18 @@ def download(*,
     exclude = [exclude] if isinstance(exclude, str) else exclude
     exclude = [] if exclude is None else list(exclude)
 
+    for dataset_default_excludes in DEFAULT_EXCLUDES:
+        if dataset_default_excludes['datasetName'] == dataset:
+            msg = f'Adding default excludes for dataset {dataset}: \n     '
+            msg += '\n     '.join(dataset_default_excludes['excludeFiles'])
+            if stdout_unicode:
+                msg =  f'🤕 {msg}'
+            tqdm.write(msg)
+            exclude = list(
+                set(exclude + dataset_default_excludes['excludeFiles'])
+            )
+            break
+
     retry_backoff = 0.5  # seconds
     metadata = _get_download_metadata(base_url=default_base_url,
                                       dataset_id=dataset,
diff --git a/openneuro/tests/test_download.py b/openneuro/tests/test_download.py
index 79a3ddd..63ac885 100644
--- a/openneuro/tests/test_download.py
+++ b/openneuro/tests/test_download.py
@@ -77,3 +77,13 @@ def test_resume_download(tmp_path: Path):
     include = ['sub-0001/meg/sub-0001_coordsystem.json']
     download(dataset=dataset, tag=tag, target_dir=tmp_path,
              include=include)
+
+
+def test_ds000248(tmp_path: Path):
+    """Test a dataset for that we ship default excludes."""
+    dataset = 'ds000248'
+    download(
+        dataset=dataset,
+        include=['participants.tsv'],
+        target_dir=tmp_path
+    )
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 13735d5..ecf5588 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ install_requires =
     sgqlc
     importlib-metadata; python_version < "3.8"
     typing-extensions; python_version < "3.8"
+include_package_data = True
 
 [options.entry_points]
 console_scripts =