Regarding Copyright Message on software?

Question

Why does copy right message has duration of past i.e.for Office 2003 ,Copyright message is Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corporation. What does it exactly means?

Answer 1

The years on copyright notices are to be the years when the work was first published, so in this case, it means Microsoft has published Office since 1985 & are claiming all copyrights from that year to 2003 for their version of Office 2003.

Here's a link to the US Copyright Office that explains those notices of copyright: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#noc

Hope that helps!