Copyright years (and minimizing the burden on developers and maintainers)

[Toni Asensi Esteve]

"Every January 1st, an army of open source developers rushes out to 
update their copyright attributions in licenses and documentation. Why? 
Because we’ve always done it that way.

I’ve stopped participating after I learned that copyright statements 
need only the year of the first publication and no lawyer that I asked 
contradicted.

Now, I’m not a lawyer, so don’t take this as legal advice from me. All 
I’m saying is that if it’s good enough for Google’s, Microsoft’s, and 
Netflix’s lawyers, it’s good enough for me:

     - [Google’s Go](https://github.com/golang/go/blob/master/LICENSE)
     - [Microsoft’s VS 
Code](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/main/LICENSE.txt)
     - [Netflix’s 
Hystrix](https://github.com/Netflix/Hystrix/blob/master/README.md#license)

In fact, you can drop years altogether:

     - Linux Foundation’s 
[guidance](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/copyright-notices-in-open-source-software-projects/).
     - Facebook [removed 
years](https://github.com/facebook/react/commit/b87aabdfe1b7461e7331abb3601d9e6bb27544bc) 
from React.
     - Amazon [switched 
positions](https://mastodon.social/@mark@chatter.quux.world/109621623369696598) 
in [2020](https://twitter.com/ajorg/status/1228369968963604480), too.

Enjoy your New Year doing something more fun!"
         -- Hynek Schlawack, https://hynek.me/til/copyright-years/