Copyright &copy; <?php echo date("Y";?> .com

or

Copyright &copy; 2011 .com

?

Lol, i cant see any php code in the second anyway. but if i must choose , i will go with first cos of the php date object.

No mind me jare. I was just pulling legz, no OOP. But clearly, the PHP code is more efficient in the sense that it always knows the right date.
If you take a look at some sites, the developers have not yet updated the footer to 2010. This is a method i have adopted right from the
time i learnt php - and many of my PHP pals have adopted it too.

playing devil's advocate, what of companies that had a copyright for a particular year but not for subsequent years?  Isn't it arguable that they can't lie to the public by stating that their site is still under copyright? 

My (devil's advocate) point:
The whole "copyright" thing has been abused in my opinion.  basically what has most likely happened is when one decided to learn web dev, they noticed that all sites had a copyright and so said to themselves, "so cool to have that copyright logo on a site.  My client go think say im dey hammer".  That of course explains why some "webmasters" don't think ahead by making the year dynamic.  All that they care about is that they got the "job" and dem don clean mouth be dat. if you push them further, they immediately point to google.com and facebook.com, telling you how with minimalistic code those 2 companies are making billions, and they themselves hopelessly hoping that they will make 1% of that.

As always you are correct again. I found it very annoying once or twice when a client "shouted at me angrily" to update his website faaast!

But maybe i will stop using that dynamic code. . . . . . . .

true, but incase u really resource sensitive u cud use client scripting but u never know when sm crackhead mite decide to disable js so php is better

Client scripting is completely out of it. Sometimes, even my own PC time is incorrect. . .