diff --git a/setuptools/dist.py b/setuptools/dist.py
index 43762960ba4..c4bdd32e5e5 100644
--- a/setuptools/dist.py
+++ b/setuptools/dist.py
@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ def _normalize_requires(self):
     def _finalize_license_files(self) -> None:
         """Compute names of all license files which should be included."""
         license_files: list[str] | None = self.metadata.license_files
-        patterns: list[str] = license_files if license_files else []
+        patterns: list[str] = license_files or []
 
         license_file: str | None = self.metadata.license_file
         if license_file and license_file not in patterns: