Update your Copyright to the year 2009!...

Alex, "Unprofessional?"

Based on... what?

Suppose, just for a second, that I have a book on houseplants for bachelors. Under what circumstances does the copyright date matter to a sensible adult intelligence?

This should be good...


Paul

Hi,

Someone makes a thread like this every year.

Perhaps we should compile a book entitled '101 unnecessary things that help you to avoid doing any work that will earn you money.'

Updating your copyright could be one of the main examples (bearing in mind that if you're particularly bothered about it you could use a small piece of code on your sites to do it automatically and never have to think about it again) along with checking stats hourly, tidying up and re-organising your desktop, hard drive and bookmarks etc.

Perhaps we could also throw in a bonus book - 'the art of double-handling' - which explains way to ensure that you don't get too productive by doing things in illogical sequences that take twice as much effort than necessary to achieve the same goal.

Thanks for the reminder I'm onto it now

haha... It's okay everybody is entitled to their own opinion and I completely respect that. I simply made this quick thread to remind the people that do want to do this update, for the people that don't well that's their problem.

Nevertheless, some very good issues have been brought up here and should be considered.

Alex Kaplo

Hi Alex,

And respect back to you for that response.

Kathy, Okay, since you've volunteered, let me ask you a question. I'll use a different example this time.

Suppose you go to a site on a subject relating to human psychology. Say, applied creativity. The copyright date is 2006. Do you assume the material is out of date? If so, on what basis?

Do you believe that the working of the human mind has changed substantially in the past 2-3 years?

There are subjects for which it's important to have the latest information. SEO, drug interactions, stock and fashion trends and other topics on which the working data change in relatively short cycles or periods.

There is information that doesn't change often or quickly, if at all. As an example, an accurate history of some topic or event would not ever need to change. In fact, chronological distance from the events can lead to less accuracy, rather than more.

Look at it from another perspective: Suppose someone has a book on a given topic that relates to a field which changes relatively quickly, like SEO. If they change the copyright date, but the information is still unchanged from 8 years ago, have they done something professional, or something deceptive?

Hence my questioning of the unqualified assertion by the OP that failing to change the copyright date is "unprofessional."

Yes, there are people who share your assumption that anything more than 3 months old is out of date. Yes, I have run into them, and gotten exactly this complaint about the topic of applied creativity.

I have also run into people who will read a 100 or 200 page book, see one or two things in it that are common knowledge, and then say that the whole thing is just "rehashed crap" they can get on the web for free.

As a merchant, I do not take such people seriously.

It constantly surprises me that the people least able to apply cutting edge techniques are the ones who most demand them. If you have the background to know which is which, and where each is needed, you pay more attention to the content than the copyright notice.

On another, related, point:

I have seen products and salesletters that were upgraded over a period of years, and which didn't update the copyright date in the footer graphic. Which should matter more to me?

If you look at the copyright date as being more significant than the content, you probably don't know enough about the subject for either to matter.


Paul