diff --git a/tools/copyright b/tools/copyright
index 22e7e9a..edae0a4 100755
--- a/tools/copyright
+++ b/tools/copyright
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # Updates copyright of various source files and commits to repository
 #
-#  Copyright (C) 2013 Mike Gerwitz
+#  Copyright (C) 2013, 2014 Mike Gerwitz
 #
 #  This file is part of GNU ease.js.
 #
@@ -70,12 +70,21 @@ read -p 'Are you sure you want to continue (y/N)? ' c
 
 copyupdate()
 {
-  years="$1"
-  file="$2"
+  local years="$1"
+  local file="$2"
 
   sed -i "s/\(. \+Copyright (C) \).*\$/\\1$years $owner/" "$file"
 }
 
+getyears()
+{
+  grep -vF '[copyright]' \
+    | cut -d' ' -f4 \
+    | sort -u \
+    | tr '\n' , \
+    | sed 's/,/, /g;s/, $//'
+}
+
 # have at it
 for file in $files; do
   ext="${file##*/*.}"
@@ -83,14 +92,10 @@ for file in $files; do
 
   # determine copyrightable years from commit log and format as year1, year2,
   # ..., yearn (TODO: join consecutive years with dash)
-  years=$(
+  years="$(
     git log --format='%aD %s' --follow -- "$file" \
-      | grep -vF '[copyright]' \
-      | cut -d' ' -f4 \
-      | sort -u \
-      | tr '\n' , \
-      | sed 's/,/, /g;s/, $//'
-  )
+      | getyears
+  )"
 
   # no years, then no history
   if [ -z "$years" ]; then
@@ -103,10 +108,13 @@ for file in $files; do
   echo "$years."
 done
 
-# general files
-year="$( date +%Y )"
-copyupdate "$year" license.tpl
-copyupdate "$year" license-min.tpl
+# general license templates will contain all copyright years
+years="$(
+  git log --format='%aD %s' \
+    | getyears
+)"
+copyupdate "$years" license.tpl
+copyupdate "$years" license-min.tpl
 
 # commit
 git commit -am '[copyright] Copyright update'