Do you have to put the year in AssemblyCopyrightAttribute?

I was recently asked to update the copyright information for all of our projects to show as 2011 rather than 2010. Rather than updating this yearly why not omit the date from the Copyright?

for example:

<Assembly: 开发者_如何学编程AssemblyCopyright("© MyCorp Limited. All rights reserved")>

as opposed to:

<Assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © 20xx-2011 MyCorp Limited. All rights reserved")>

The documentation doesn't really comment as to whether this is likely to be an issue, legal or otherwise.

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I forwarded this up to our legal guys and they suggest our notices are formatted as follows (UK)

<Assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © MyCorp Limited 2011. All rights reserved")>

Where 2011 is the date of creation or substantial modification. This was their full response, which I hope will be of use to everybody:

In terms of the “correct” wording for a copyright notice to be used in connection with software, it should be noted that there is no strict legal requirement to include a copyright notice - whether a notice is used or not will not change the fact that copyright exists in the software. It is, however, strongly recommended that you include one on your software if all possible in order to deter copyright infringement – the purpose of the copyright notice is to:

• make it clear to third parties that the work is subject to copyright;
• identify the copyright owner; and
• act as a deterrent against infringement or plagiarism.

The notice consists of various parts:

“Copyright” / ©

Some countries will not accept the symbol alone, they also require the word “Copyright” to appear in order to consider the notice valid. Using the word ensures that there can be no confusion, but most countries across the world accept that the use of the normally recognised symbol as the correct manner of displaying copyright.

The year of first publication of the copyright work

It is important that the copyright notice includes the year of creation of the software. In case of an infringement dispute / dispute as to ownership, this date plays an important part. Where a computer program is revised or modified to a substantial degree, each new version will be protected as a new copyright work, and it is therefore important to update the year referenced in the copyright notice – to record the date on which the new version was created.

The name of the owner of the copyright

A copyright notice should refer to the actual owner of the copyright because that is the primary object of such a notice (to put third parties on notice of an owner's rights). We assume that the software in question (and copyright therein) is owned by MyCorp Limited (and not, for example, a subsidiary / holding company).

The following is an example of a copyright notice that could be used in connection with software owned by MyCorp Limited which was created in 2011:

Copyright © MyCorp Limited 2011. All rights reserved.