Don't bother with copyright year(s). Let the repository history track the changes and copyright years. YAGNI.

docs/conf.py

@@ -23,10 +23,7 @@ dist_info_cmd = [sys.executable, setup_script] + fields
 output_bytes = subprocess.check_output(dist_info_cmd, cwd=root)
 project, version, url, author = output_bytes.decode('utf-8').strip().split('\n')
 
-origin_date = datetime.date(2017,1,1)
-today = datetime.date.today()
-
-copyright = '{origin_date.year}-{today.year} {author}'.format(**locals())
+copyright = author
 
 # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
 release = version