diff --git a/LICENSE.md b/LICENSE.md
index aec557f3a0..56753af367 100644
--- a/LICENSE.md
+++ b/LICENSE.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 MIT License
 
-Copyright 2018-2023 the Deno authors
+Copyright 2018-2024 the Deno authors
 
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
 this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
diff --git a/tools/copyright_checker.js b/tools/copyright_checker.js
index 5e415fcc92..78118cb007 100644
--- a/tools/copyright_checker.js
+++ b/tools/copyright_checker.js
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 import { getSources, ROOT_PATH } from "./util.js";
 
+const copyrightYear = 2024;
+
 const buffer = new Uint8Array(1024);
 const textDecoder = new TextDecoder();
 
@@ -49,7 +51,7 @@ export async function checkCopyright() {
   const ACCEPTABLE_LINES =
     /^(\/\/ deno-lint-.*|\/\/ Copyright.*|\/\/ Ported.*|\s*|#!\/.*)\n/;
   const COPYRIGHT_LINE =
-    "Copyright 2018-2024 the Deno authors. All rights reserved. MIT license.";
+    `Copyright 2018-${copyrightYear} the Deno authors. All rights reserved. MIT license.`;
   const TOML_COPYRIGHT_LINE = "# " + COPYRIGHT_LINE;
   const C_STYLE_COPYRIGHT_LINE = "// " + COPYRIGHT_LINE;
 
@@ -87,6 +89,14 @@ export async function checkCopyright() {
     }
   }
 
+  // check the main license file
+  const licenseText = Deno.readTextFileSync(ROOT_PATH + "/LICENSE.md");
+  if (
+    !licenseText.includes(`Copyright 2018-${copyrightYear} the Deno authors`)
+  ) {
+    errors.push(`LICENSE.md has old copyright year`);
+  }
+
   if (errors.length > 0) {
     // show all the errors at the same time to prevent overlap with
     // other running scripts that may be outputting