Ask HN: What is the point of “© 2020 CompanyName” in website footers?

When the content changes, that new content is under a new, and current copyright. So most of the time using the current year is legitimate.

Of course, it’s probably just automated, since updating the copyright with changes once a year is probably too big of a pain.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Yeah. In PHP, a lot of commercial sites just have date('Y'); after the copyright symbol, this just always gives the current year.

[ Parent | on HN ]

So i guess really one should so 2002-2020

[ Parent | on HN ]

A lot of commercial software such as Windows and Photoshop do this, and it must have been approved by legal. So I suppose this is currently considered the best way to do it.

A range like 2002-2020 conveys two ideas: that the work has been around for a while, and that it is still maintained. Both are important for corporate folks who want an assurance of stability.

[ Parent | on HN ]

I always laugh at the copyright dates on this [1] Australian government website. It claims 2003-2020 but I'm pretty sure it hasn't changed since 2003.

[1] https://www.edge.asic.gov.au/004/compportal/get/ServicesLogi...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Not to be pedantic, but wouldn't changing the year to 2020 itself count as a copyrightable change?

[ Parent | on HN ]

single words / short phrases aren't copyrightable so probably not

[ Parent | on HN ]

The whole work with the change would still be under copyright

[ Parent | on HN ]