I never understand why sites feel the need to include the date in a copyright banner/footer (or why the copyright is even needed since it is automatically the case). But if you are going to do it, then make sure you update it otherwise it could be coming up to the end of February and a viewer seeing the previous year could wonder if the site is dead/stale/not maintained.
Prior to 1989 all works in the US required either a copyright notice or registration filing for copyright protection. This is no longer the case, but people still do it. Note that, if present, the date should be the date of publishing of the work in question. One might be able to argue that simply updating the page to change the copyright date without actually creating and publishing a new copyrightable work is not a valid copyright notice (but, again, this is all moot since you don't even need a copyright notice these days).
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I never understand why sites feel the need to include the date in a copyright banner/footer (or why the copyright is even needed since it is automatically the case). But if you are going to do it, then make sure you update it otherwise it could be coming up to the end of February and a viewer seeing the previous year could wonder if the site is dead/stale/not maintained.
Prior to 1989 all works in the US required either a copyright notice or registration filing for copyright protection. This is no longer the case, but people still do it. Note that, if present, the date should be the date of publishing of the work in question. One might be able to argue that simply updating the page to change the copyright date without actually creating and publishing a new copyrightable work is not a valid copyright notice (but, again, this is all moot since you don't even need a copyright notice these days).