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When I was using Lightroom, I accidentally overwrote the copyright metadata to 2009. Is there any script or technique inside LR4 (or with some free software) so I can calculate and rewrite the copyright value with the date the shot was taken?

It is not only because I overwrote the value, but sometime I also forget to increase that value to the current year on the camera itself. Then getting the history back is not an option as I would like to fill this information based on another one (capture time's year).

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Assuming the "date taken" is still intact im sure it would be possible, but i have never tried scripting in LR... Hope someone can help you. \$\endgroup\$
    – Digital Lightcraft
    Aug 8, 2015 at 15:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ Not that this is going to help you now but this is one of the reasons that I prepend the file's "date taken" to the picture's filename. \$\endgroup\$
    – rob j crowe
    Aug 8, 2015 at 16:33

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This only sets the ITPC copyright line, assumes the EXIF date information is correct, and has to be done per individual year, but it works for me.

  1. In the Library module, if your photos are filed by date, select the year's folder in the Folders pane. Alternatively, if your photos are not filed by date, select your entire Library, apply the Metadata filter, and select a year in the Date column.

  2. Do a Select All (Ctrl/Cmd-A) to select all of the year's photos. Make sure you've only got the single year's worth of photos selected.

  3. Click on the Sync Metadata button.

  4. Make sure that only the checkbox for Copyright is selected (it's the only field you want to sync up).

  5. Fill in the text you want for your copyright. I'm old fashioned and prefer the entire "Copyright (c)YYYY myname. All rights reserved." type text, but it's up to you.

  6. Repeat Steps 1-5 for each year's worth of photos in your catalog.

Alternatively, you could also write a script using exiftool, but that requires some basic programming chops and familiarity with command line tools.

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