Title: Perennial – Auto-Updating Copyright Year Block Author: GhostLabs Published: October 2, 2026 Last modified: October 2, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/assets/banner-772x250.png? rev=3724770) ![](https://ps.w.org/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/assets/icon.svg?rev=3724770) # Perennial – Auto-Updating Copyright Year Block By [GhostLabs](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ghostlabs/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice.1.0.0.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/) ## Description Every site has a copyright line in the footer, and every site eventually has the wrong one — because the year was typed in by hand and nobody remembered to change it. This plugin adds a single block that works the year out when the page is served, so the notice is right on 1 January without anyone touching it. **What it does** * Shows the current year, resolved in **your site’s timezone** — not the visitor’s browser. * Optionally shows a range — `© 2001 – 2026` in English. Set the start year to the current year and it shows that year on its own rather than a range of one. The format is translatable, so a locale can set its own separator, numerals or placement for the © symbol. * Uses your **site title** as the copyright holder by default, so renaming the site updates every notice at once. Type a different name if you want one. * Optionally appends “All rights reserved.”, punctuated correctly. * Lets you style the **year separately from the rest of the notice** — its own color, font size and weight. The © symbol follows the year’s styling. **Built to stay correct** The notice is rendered on the server, which matters more than it sounds: * The year is never written into your post content, so it cannot go stale, and your saved posts never break when the year rolls over. * Search engines see the finished text in the page source, with no JavaScript to run first. * **No JavaScript is loaded on the front end at all** — on any theme. On a block theme the stylesheet is inlined into only the pages that use the block; on a classic theme WordPress loads every registered block’s stylesheet site-wide, including this one. The one thing server rendering cannot fix is somebody else’s copy of the finished page. So when the year turns over, the plugin clears the cache for you on **WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and LiteSpeed Cache — those four. Any other cache can clear itself by hooking the rollover action; see the FAQ. Alignment, color, spacing, font size and line height all come from the standard WordPress block controls, so the notice inherits your theme’s palette and type scale rather than fighting it. ### External services This plugin contacts no external services. It makes no network requests of any kind— no license check, no update check of its own, no analytics, no telemetry, no remote fonts or assets. Nothing about your site or your visitors leaves your server because of it. The one thing that might look like an exception is not one. When the year turns over the plugin clears the cache for WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and LiteSpeed Cache — but it does that by calling those plugins in PHP on your own site, if they happen to be installed. That is a function call inside WordPress, not a request to anybody. ### Source code The editor JavaScript this plugin ships is compiled. The sources it is compiled from are published here, tagged to match each release: https://github.com/theghostlab/wp-ghostlabs-perennial That repository holds the plugin exactly as distributed, plus the `src/` it was built from and the lockfile, `package.json` and webpack config needed to rebuild it. A clean install and a rebuild reproduce the shipped bundle: ``` pnpm install --frozen-lockfile && pnpm run build ``` The bundle that ships inside the plugin is minified, which is the whole reason that repository exists: the readable source is published there rather than padding every install with it. Nothing is obfuscated. The plugin loads no JavaScript on the front end at all — that bundle is the block editor’s, and nothing else. ## Screenshots [⌊The rendered notice in a site footer. The year is worked out when the page is served, so it turns over on 1 January by itself — nothing is stored in your content.⌉⌊ The rendered notice in a site footer. The year is worked out when the page is served, so it turns over on 1 January by itself — nothing is stored in your content.⌉[ The rendered notice in a site footer. The year is worked out when the page is served, so it turns over on 1 January by itself — nothing is stored in your content. [⌊Set a start year and the notice reads as a range — © 2016 – 2026 — with the end always the current year. The Statement of rights toggle appends "All rights reserved.", punctuated for you.⌉⌊Set a start year and the notice reads as a range — © 2016 – 2026 — with the end always the current year. The Statement of rights toggle appends" All rights reserved.", punctuated for you.⌉[ Set a start year and the notice reads as a range — © 2016 – 2026 — with the end always the current year. The Statement of rights toggle appends “All rights reserved.”, punctuated for you. [⌊The year and its © symbol get their own size, weight and color, set separately from the rest of the line — so it can carry the footer without the notice shouting.⌉⌊ The year and its © symbol get their own size, weight and color, set separately from the rest of the line — so it can carry the footer without the notice shouting.⌉[ The year and its © symbol get their own size, weight and color, set separately from the rest of the line — so it can carry the footer without the notice shouting. [⌊Add it once to your block theme's footer template part in the Site Editor, and every page that uses that footer carries the notice.⌉⌊Add it once to your block theme's footer template part in the Site Editor, and every page that uses that footer carries the notice.⌉[ Add it once to your block theme’s footer template part in the Site Editor, and every page that uses that footer carries the notice. ## Blocks This plugin provides 1 block. * Perennial: Copyright Notice A copyright notice that keeps its year and site name current automatically. ## Installation **From your dashboard** 1. Go to **Plugins**, then the screen for adding one — **Add Plugins**. 2. Search for **Perennial**. 3. Click **Install Now**, then **Activate**. **From a downloaded .zip** 1. Go to **Plugins** and open the **Add Plugins** screen. 2. Click **Upload Plugin** at the top, choose the .zip file, and click **Install Now**. 3. Click **Activate Plugin**. **By FTP** 1. Unzip the file and upload the `ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice` folder to `/ wp-content/plugins/`. 2. Activate the plugin from the **Plugins** screen. #### Then add the notice In any post, page, or template, add the **Perennial: Copyright Notice** block. On a block theme, add it once to your footer template part in **Appearance Editor** and every page that uses that footer carries it. On a classic theme there is no footer template part to add it to, so place the block wherever you want the notice. There is no settings screen. Everything the block does is in its own settings and styles in the editor sidebar. ## FAQ ### Do I have to do anything on January 1? No. The year is worked out each time the page is served. ### I use a caching plugin. Will the year still update? The notice itself is always right — it is worked out when the page is served. What can go stale is a cached copy of the finished page: one cached on 31 December keeps serving last year’s notice until that cache is cleared. So the plugin clears it, on four caching plugins by name. The first request of the new year that WordPress actually builds notices the year has changed and clears the cache. There is no scheduled task and nothing to configure — a cached page is served without WordPress ever loading this plugin, so the only thing that can trigger the check is the next request that is not served from cache: an admin opening the dashboard, a logged-in reader, a crawler, or any page the cache is not already holding. **Cleared for you:** WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and LiteSpeed Cache— those four, and no others. Each is asked for a full flush, so on W3 Total Cache and LiteSpeed that clears their object caches too; once a year, deliberately. Each one ties this plugin to somebody else’s code, so the list stays deliberately short; the hook in the next question is what scales. **Any other cache:** if it expires at least once a year, it corrects itself the next time it expires — which with a twelve-month lifetime can be most of a year. With very long or indefinite lifetimes, clear your page cache once after New Year, or set your caching plugin to purge on a schedule. ### Can I clear my own cache when the year rolls over? Yes — two hooks, both reached on that same first request of the new year. Neither fires on a brand-new install, which has no previous year on record to compare against. The `ghostlabs_perennial_year_rolled_over` action is passed the new year and the year before it. It fires whether or not this plugin clears anything, so it is the place to purge a cache, CDN or host layer this plugin does not know about. ``` add_action( 'ghostlabs_perennial_year_rolled_over', function ( $current, $stored ) { // Clear your own cache here. }, 10, 2 ); ``` The `ghostlabs_perennial_purge_on_rollover` filter defaults to `true`. Return `false` and the plugin clears nothing itself. The action above still fires, so you can decline the built-in purge and still handle it your own way. ### Which year does it use if my visitors are in other countries? Your site’s, as set in **Settings General Timezone**. Working it out in the visitor’s browser instead would mean someone in Auckland and someone in Los Angeles could see different years for a few hours around New Year. ### What if I leave the name blank? The notice uses your site title, and keeps using it — so if you rename the site later, every notice updates. Type a name only if you want it to differ from the site title. ### Can I make the year a different color or size from the rest of the line? Yes. Select the block, open the **Styles** tab, and use **Year typography** and ** Year color**. These affect only the year and the © symbol. The rest of the notice uses the block’s normal color and typography controls. The year’s font size is offered in `rem`, `em`, `ch` and `%` rather than pixels, so it scales with your theme and with a reader’s text-size settings. The block’s own font size control offers whatever units your theme does. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Perennial – Auto-Updating Copyright Year Block” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ GhostLabs ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ghostlabs/) [Translate “Perennial – Auto-Updating Copyright Year Block” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.0.0 * First release. * The notice is rendered on the server, so a saved year can never go stale and posts do not break when the year changes. * Separate color and typography controls for the year and © symbol. * The copyright holder follows the site title when left blank, rather than being fixed at the moment the block was inserted. * Alignment, color and typography settings apply on the front end. * The cache is cleared when the year turns over, on WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and LiteSpeed Cache. The check runs on the first request of the new year that WordPress handles itself rather than serving from cache — a page view, an admin screen, a REST call or a crawler. There is no scheduled task. * Added an action, `ghostlabs_perennial_year_rolled_over`, passed the new and previous year, so any other cache, CDN or host layer can clear itself. * Added a filter, `ghostlabs_perennial_purge_on_rollover` (default true), to turn the plugin’s own purging off. The action fires either way. * The year range uses an en dash — © 2001 – 2026 — which is the correct punctuation for a range, and the year format is translatable. ## Meta * Version **1.0.0** * Last updated **19 hours ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.4 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.1.2** * PHP version ** 7.4 or higher ** * Tags * [copyright](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/copyright/)[copyright year](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/copyright-year/) [current year](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/current-year/)[footer](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/footer/) [year](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/year/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ GhostLabs ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ghostlabs/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/ghostlabs-dynamic-copyright-notice/)