What relevance does the stated year have in online copyright claims?

Question

I've noticed that many websites will use a bit of JavaScript to keep the declared copyright year at the bottom of the page up to date. For example: new Date().getFullYear() (which simply reports the current year, no matter when the content was actually last updated). Does this practice actually accomplish anything other than make the site appear to be more recently/frequently updated?

Answer 1

Almost none. It is a legacy of the era when copyright protection was a function of year of publication. Including it is appropriate, however, to meet the formal requirements for a legal notice of claim of copyright which has some procedural implications if it is omitted.