Often you will see a website that has an outdated copyright date which is pretty annoying. There are also sites that only show the current year for their copyright date which is even more annoying because you won’t know how old the site is. There is a simple PHP solution to this that most developers would know, but there is a more elegant way that we will show you. In this article, we will share a function that will automatically generate a copyright date based on the published date of your oldest and newest post.
Simple PHP Solution for Dynamic Copyright Date
You would paste something like this in your theme’s functions.php file
© 2009 – <?php echo date('Y'); ?> YourSite.com
The problem with this issue is that you would have to add this once your site is at least one year old.
Elegant WordPress Solution for Dynamic Copyright Date
While surfing the web, we saw a more elegant solution suggested by @frumph of CompicPress Theme. They are using this function on their excellent ComicPress theme. This function will generate a dynamic copyright date based on the published date of your oldest post and your newest post. If it is the first year of your site, then this function will only display the current year.
To implement this dynamic copyright date in your WordPress footer, open your theme’s functions.php file and add the following code:
function comicpress_copyright() {
global $wpdb;
$copyright_dates = $wpdb->get_results("
SELECT
YEAR(min(post_date_gmt)) AS firstdate,
YEAR(max(post_date_gmt)) AS lastdate
FROM
$wpdb->posts
WHERE
post_status = 'publish'
");
$output = '';
if($copyright_dates) {
$copyright = "© " . $copyright_dates[0]->firstdate;
if($copyright_dates[0]->firstdate != $copyright_dates[0]->lastdate) {
$copyright .= '-' . $copyright_dates[0]->lastdate;
}
$output = $copyright;
}
return $output;
}
Then open your theme’s footer.php file and add the following code where you want to display the date:
<?php echo comicpress_copyright(); ?>
This function will add the following text:
© 2009 – 2010
Don’t keep your copyright dates outdated. Take advantage of this technique in your current and future WordPress sites.
I have used the code above, with a slight modification to the comicpress_copyright() function which I renamed to a more generic one.
Nice tip! I addded this with almost zero coding knowledge. How would I add my site title after the year?
Wow. This is great. Thank you
Something like this might be easier and less intensive.
<?php
$year = date('Y');
if ($year != 2009){
echo '© 2009 – '.$year.' YourSite.com';
} else {
echo '© 2009 YourSite.com';
}
?>
It’s worth pointing out that copyright exists for a number of years from the first time it was published. That means there’s to things to consider:
1) The visual copyright notice is not necessary under the Berne treaty – it has no standing in law whether you have it on the site or not.
2) If the site was first published in a certain year, claiming it could be actually published in a later year actually lowers any claim you may have for copyright infringement.
Also, most visual copyright notices, for what they are worth, also need to put who the copyright is to, after the year(s).
Finally, it’s typographically correct to use an “en dash” instead of the hyphen-minus character you’ve suggested.
Surprised this hasn’t been added to every theme writers toolbox.
I changed – to – and added in my name as per Gary’s comments.
Little better way for this feature is to add php variable about site name (able to change in admin panel), for example:
© 2009 –
Great tips, problem solved, thanx
Thanks for the tip! I implemented that in about 60 seconds
It surely does bug me when I go to a site and the copyright is out of date but yet they are publishing fresh content.
This will be a nice dummy factor for that.
As always I enjoy your guys as a WordPress resource.