Which year to use for copyright line on the web

<p>Hi,<br>

<br />A few of my travel photos will be used on a web banner, and my copyright info will appear on a corner of the banner. Some (but not all) of these photos were used on a different website, as part of a story, in 2012. Now I'm unsure as to which year to choose for the copyright watermark on the banner.<br>

Is it : © 2012 My Name <br>

or <br>

© 2014 My Name<br>

Does it even matter? I just want it to be correct. I took the photos in 2012, in case that's important.<br>

If anyone knows and could let me know, that would be great.<br>

<br />Many thanks for your help!<br>

SF</p>

<p>Whatever the earliest to latest : 2012 - 2014.....and change that in Jan with new year.</p>

<p>Les</p>

<p>You are not required to put a year or even a copyright notice for the copyright to be valid. However, the copyright year, if you are going to use it, is the year it was first published. Plenty of people omit the year as it is meaningless in terms of enforcement.</p>

<p>It's essentially meaningless because, in the United States at least, the term of copyright is the life of the author plus 70 years (and that will surely be extended in 2019, when Disney and Time-Warner buy their next copyright extension to prevent works they control created after 1923 from ever escaping into the public domain). But the year is customary, and should indicate when you took the picture.</p>

<p>Ted is right.... no year required...</p>