Open Source Maintenance: Do I Need to Update My License Year?

If you’ve been maintaining a project since 2019 and have reached a milestone like v5.x , you might wonder if that "2019" in your LICENSE file makes your project look abandoned. Here is a quick guide on how to handle license dates effectively without overthinking it. The "First Publication" Rule In an MIT or Apache license, the year (e.g., Copyright (c) 2019 ) marks the year of first publication . It isn't an expiration date. However, as your project evolves through major versions, your code changes significantly. Using the Copyright Range Instead of choosing between the start year and the current year, the professional standard is to use a range . Bad: Copyright (c) 2019 (Looks abandoned) Better: Copyright (c) 2026 (Wipes out the history of the original work) Best: Copyright (c) 2019-2026 (Protects the original v1.0 and the current v5.x) When to Update (The SemVer Strategy) If you follow Semantic Versioning , you don't need to touch the license for every patch. Version Type Update Lice