Copyright Dates - Single Year or Range?

Some people choose to write a copyright notice by reference to a single year, while others show a range of years. Is one way better than the other, and is the answer always the same in different contexts?

The Australian Copyright Council recommends the following formulation for claiming copyright in written documents: © (or ‘Copyright’) + copyright owner’s name + year of first publication. For example: © Epiphany Law Pty Ltd, 2008.

Once in a while you might see what looks like a date range instead of a single year of first publication, such as: © Epiphany Law Pty Ltd, 2006-2016. This is appropriate for ‘documents’ such as web pages or software programs which are constantly being revised and updated incrementally. The ‘start’ year should be the date of the oldest content still contained in the work, with the ‘end’ year being the last year that the work was revised.

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