diff --git a/lib/action.php b/lib/action.php
index f3a125d3b5..fb71d3073f 100644
--- a/lib/action.php
+++ b/lib/action.php
@@ -1167,11 +1167,9 @@ class Action extends HTMLOutputter // lawsuit
                 // TRANS: license message in footer.
                 // TRANS: %1$s is the site name, %2$s is a link to the license URL, with a licence name set in configuration.
                 $notice = _('All %1$s content and data are available under the %2$s license.');
-                $link = "<a class=\"license\" rel=\"external license\" href=\"" .
-                        htmlspecialchars(common_config('license', 'url')) .
-                        "\">" .
-                        htmlspecialchars(common_config('license', 'title')) .
-                        "</a>";
+                $link = sprintf('<a class="license" rel="external license" href="%1$s">%2$s</a>',
+                                htmlspecialchars(common_config('license', 'url')),
+                                htmlspecialchars(common_config('license', 'title')));
                 $this->raw(sprintf(htmlspecialchars($notice),
                                    htmlspecialchars(common_config('site', 'name')),
                                    $link));