I don’t know about you, but one of the first pieces of information I look at when reading something online or in a book is the copyright date. Looking at the copyright date gives you a quick indication of the timeliness and relevance of the information.
Some topics are not as time sensitive as others. For example, an article written about a knitting technique in 1994 may still be relevant and helpful today, whereas a separate article written about the specifcations and pricing of computer processor in 2004 will probably not be much help now.
So, updating the copyright date on your website or written materials serves not only a legal purpose, but a practical one as well. It immediately notifies readers of the timeliness of the information and also whether a company or product website is actively maintained.
A quick and easy way to automatically update the copyright notice on your website is to add the following code in the footer:
Copyright © <?php echo date(‘Y’); ?> Company/Blog Name
This code will produce the following output this year:
Copyright @2010 Company/Blog Name
The real beauty of this technique is that the copyright date will automatically be updated in future years, as long as you don’t change the code for your footer.
Not only will the information on your site be copyright protected as you produce it, but your readers will be assured that you actively maintain and update the information on the site to provide the most timely information.
