diff --git a/http/Makefile b/http/Makefile
index 7b504c2..eea98e8 100644
--- a/http/Makefile
+++ b/http/Makefile
@@ -41,6 +41,12 @@ blog: prune_blog $(patsubst blogs/blog/%.gmi,src/blog/%.blog.upphtml,$(wildcard
 src/blog/%.blog.upphtml: blogs/blog/%.gmi bin/blog bin/gmi2upphtml bin/cut_longlog_meta
 	./bin/blog -i blog -l blog -p 'cut_longlog_meta | gmi2upphtml' -a extract_longlog_meta -f $*.gmi
 
+.PHONY: public
+public: $(subst public/,out/,$(shell find public/ -type f))
+
+out/%: public/%
+	mkdir -p $(dir $@) && cp $< $@
+
 .PHONY: clean
 clean:
 	rm -rf out src/microlog src/blog
diff --git a/http/bin/mkws b/http/bin/mkws
index 78b2473..228109c 100755
--- a/http/bin/mkws
+++ b/http/bin/mkws
@@ -15,15 +15,6 @@ export LAYOUTS="$(realpath share/layouts)"
 export DEFAULT_LAYOUT="${LAYOUTS}/default.layout.upphtml"
 export OUT="$(realpath out)"
 
-if [ -d "${PUBLIC}" ]
-then
-  echo "Copying from $(basename "${PUBLIC}") into $(basename "${OUT}")"
-  cp -r "${PUBLIC}" "${OUT}"
-else
-  echo "No $(basename "${PUBLIC}") folder found"
-  mkdir -p "${OUT}"
-fi
-
 if ! test -f "${SRC}"/index.upphtml
 then
 	>&2 printf "no index.upphtml file found\\n"