Making sure that your blog has the correct year on the copyright notice is very important from a branding and professionalism level, however many people consider it a minor issue. For most bloggers it’s a simple task to FTP into the blog and edit footer.php file. But the problem is many bloggers forget about it because it’s done only once per year. However there is a simple way to make it uptade automatically. Read More > How To Auto Update The Copyright Notice
That's a pretty useful WP function not many people know about. I don't use it though because the less PHP in my theme the better. It doesn't bother me to go into my footer once a year to change one silly number, but it's just a personal preference. Good tip nonetheless.