Stale Copyright Year
Checks the footer copyright year against the current year
Checks the footer copyright year against the current year
| Rule ID | content/stale-copyright |
| Category | Content |
| Scope | Per-page |
| Severity | warning |
| Weight | 2/10 |
Solution
A footer copyright year behind the current year is the most common “this site is abandoned” signal a visitor sees, and it costs nothing to fix. Render the year dynamically from the server or build step rather than hardcoding it, or use a range whose end year updates (“2019-2026”). If the date is a deliberate legal assertion tied to a fixed publication, move it out of site chrome and into the page body so it reads as a statement about that content rather than about the site.
What it checks
Reads ©, (c), © or the word “Copyright” followed by a year or a year range, and compares the latest year found against the current year.
- Ranges are judged on the end year. In 2026,
© 2019-2026is clean and© 2019-2025warns. - A year ahead of now is not a finding. Sites legitimately roll the year over early.
- Only site chrome is inspected:
<footer>,[role=contentinfo],.footer,#footer,.site-footer,.page-footerand#colophon. A historical year in body copy is correct as written, and an archived post is supposed to say 2019, so neither is reported. - Pages with no footer, or a footer with no copyright notice, are skipped rather than passed.
Options
| Option | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
current_year |
number | current UTC year | Year to compare the footer against |
[rules.options."content/stale-copyright"]
current_year = 2026
Setting current_year pins the comparison, which is useful when auditing an archived snapshot of a site as of a particular year.
Enable / Disable
Disable this rule
[rules]
disable = ["content/stale-copyright"]
Disable all Content rules
[rules]
disable = ["content/*"]
Enable only this rule
[rules]
enable = ["content/stale-copyright"]
disable = ["*"]