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17 days into 2019 and companies still haven't updated their copyright year

19 points| tmartty | 7 years ago |tomasmartty.com

22 comments

order
[+] gpm|7 years ago|reply
If you haven't updated the page since 2018, surely the page's copyright is from 2018 not 2019, and the copyright expires in 2018 + just short of forever instead of 2019 + just short of forever.

It seems like having an auto updating footer like this advocates would be the most mild form of fraud ever, or something.

[+] JdeBP|7 years ago|reply
A copyright declaration is supposed to contain the year of first publication, which is not always the current year. The fundamental premise of this article is wrong.
[+] acura|7 years ago|reply
Is the copyright notice really something that matters anything?

And if so doesn't forward dating your copyright claim invalidate your claim? At least if you don't include a starting year.

[+] arghwhat|7 years ago|reply
It has no legal effect. Many years back, a cocktail of copyright statements and "All rights reserved" were needed to enforce your rights, but this has not been the case for a long time.
[+] drcongo|7 years ago|reply
It's 2019 and this site still isn't able to handle a bit of traffic from HN.
[+] VBprogrammer|7 years ago|reply
Isn't this totally pointless anyway? Certainly under UK law there is no need to assert copyright in order to claim it.
[+] JdeBP|7 years ago|reply
There hasn't been a need for copyright declarations (in order to assert copyright) in U.S. law since 1989, either.

A quick précis: "All rights reserved." is totally pointless chaff. A copyright declaration still has a modicum of use, but most of the pre-1989 requirements for it have gone.

* http://jdebp.eu./FGA/law-copyright-all-rights-reserved.html

[+] jmngomes|7 years ago|reply
On the other hand, it's a rather diminute investment, the benefit being that if you ever have to sue someone for infringement, you can unequivocally state that the infringer had been put on notice that the content was copyrighted, thereby helping your case. A meek help, true, but the benefits seem to far outweigh the "investment" of adding a copyright notice to a document.
[+] buboard|7 years ago|reply
is the javascript way of taking the client's year legally sound ?
[+] sokoloff|7 years ago|reply
No (but IANAL). Copyright protects creative expression. There is no creative expression in 2019 (or 2034 if the client is mis-configured) if the last edit to the input file(s) was in 2018.
[+] arghwhat|7 years ago|reply
No, as the declaration is not "current year" but "year of publication".

But, just remove the thing. It's not required.

[+] citilife|7 years ago|reply
I don't really understand listing a year in any case...
[+] JdeBP|7 years ago|reply
You really won't understand the convention that some people have of listing it in Roman numerals, then. (-:
[+] zrail|7 years ago|reply
Alternatively, just don’t list a year.
[+] hateful|7 years ago|reply
If a lot of programmers are like me, then they list whatever the client pays them to list.

Of course, we can, and should suggest alternatives. But then they'd need to listen!

[+] arghwhat|7 years ago|reply
Or nothing at all. It's unnecessary per the Berne Copyright Convention.