Auto-update your copyright year for static sites / surfer app owners

humptydumpty

It's that time of the year where copyright year needs updating (albeit I'm a bit late). Simply replace the year with this line of code and you're done! It works great for html pages hosted on the surfer app!

<script>document.write(new Date().getFullYear())</script>

murgero

@humptydumpty Shame this only works for web browsers that have javascript enabled.

humptydumpty

@murgero oh, I didn't know that. Don't most modern browsers and websites use javascript?

What would you suggest as an alternative?

timconsidine

@humptydumpty I'm not entirely clear but this might not be the best approach copyright protection-wise.
If content is authored in previous years, arguably it should state the original publication year.
Otherwise a 3rd party could have the same content with an earlier claim date, and superficially their claim pre-dates yours as original author.

I've seen people do something like (c) MYCOMPANY 2013-2023 to preserve rights ref previous periods.

But I'm not an intellectual property lawyer, so I am not 100%.

jayonrails

@humptydumpty said in Auto-update your copyright year for static sites / surfer app owners:

Don't most modern browsers and websites use javascript?

They do, but there are some users out there who prefer do disable JavaScript on their end by default and only activate it, when needed.

humptydumpty

@timconsidine my understanding of it (of a reading over a decade ago), is that under US law, you don't even need to display a copyright notice as you're automatically protected as the author/creator of that content so the site copyright notice is an old internet thing to make sites look more legit. I use it simply to indicate that the site is up-to-date and isn't abandoned. To have proper protection/ownership though, you have to patent/trademark it and that's done by filing with the USPTO.

jdaviescoates

@humptydumpty said in Auto-update your copyright year for static sites / surfer app owners:

you don't even need to display a copyright notice as you're automatically protected as the author/creator of that content

I believe that is true, and not just in the US either.

But, again, I'm no copyright expert.

(and I also think that copyright is copywrong and that everything should be free to share )

marcusquinn

@humptydumpty Given that AI is completely reliant on reading and re-writing copyright data, I wonder how long before that's a mute point.

murgero

@marcusquinn It's only copyright infringement if it's distributed. That's why you don't get fined/arrested for having say a torrented movie, but instead fined/arrested for downloading it. But if you rip if from your own collection, then it's not copyright infringement. That's how AI bots (chat, art, etc) can get away with using copyrighted material for machine learning - it's not redistribution cause the bot is making new art/text/etc.

murgero

@jdaviescoates I think most things should be free to share. There is some stuff I wouldn't want someone to have purely cause copyright is "copywrong" you know?