How to Auto-Update Your Blog’s Copyright Year
by jim on January 12th, 2010Every year around this time all the blogs about blogs write about how you can add a little php code snippet to your footer so that you never again have to manually update the copyright year. Here’s the code snippet that displays the current year:
Copyright © <?php echo date(‘Y’); ?> [Your Blog Name]
The date(‘Y’) part will display the current year.
While this is great advice, putting the copyright notice, with or without the year, is entirely unnecessary. I think most of us do it because everyone else does and because it doesn’t have any drawbacks. In the United States, and many other places, you are automatically granted a copyright to your work. You don’t need to register it. (you can do the poor man’s copyright, which is where you seal the work in a letter and send it to yourself – the postmark asks as the date)
How long does the copyright last? It lasts 70 years after your death (csusa.org).
So as you can see, putting dates at the bottom of your foot is really unnecessary. 
Like this article? Get all the latest articles sent to your email for free every day. Just click "Subscribe" and enter your email. Your email will only be used for this daily subscription and you can unsubscribe anytime.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:07 am
So why do you do it?
January 12th, 2010 at 11:40 am
peer pressure is a powerful thinggg. i do it simply to show how long the site’s been around. other than that, no real point to it.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for the code snippet but you should have skipped the copyright advice. Although publishing or registering a copyright notice is not essential to ownership, there are legal benefits to using a proper copyright notice and in registering a copyright. The poor man’s copyright? Another myth that won’t die.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
What are the legal benefits of putting the copyright snippet at the bottom of a blog?
January 12th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Jim: The use of a proper notice almost completely undermines a copier/scraper’s defense of innocent infringement, which can substantially affect damages. (See 17 U.S.C. Section 401(d))
Using a notice is so easy that it makes sense to preserve all of your remedies as an author, if only to intimidate potential infringers.
So where is your notice?
January 12th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
I see your point from a technical perspective but it’s not realistic. In every scenario involving a copier/scraper, you’ll never see the inside of a courtroom and the use of a notice to preclude innocent intent will have no impact because there will be no damages. A copier/scraper doesn’t care about your copyright, they aren’t going to be around long enough for you to track them down anyway.
I just added a notice, just to scare away the big bad scrapers.
January 12th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Jim – I generally agree with your sentiments. However, while a copier of your site may never see the inside of a courtroom, that may not be true for someone who copies me and refuses to stop. I have had legit sites copy me, although not for long.
January 12th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
How many legit sites have you recovered damages from?
January 12th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
None – they all stopped – but I was prepared to escalate if they didn’t. Having that notice is just making sure all of the arrows are in the quiver!