At the bottom of this and every page, it says:
So which particular bit of the board is copyright 1984 ?
The first Straight Dope book was originally published in 1984.
But what about 1973-1984? That isn’t copyrighted/owned by the Chicago Reader? Are the older articles under another copyright? Did www.straightdope.com only appear on the web in 1984? That seems REALLY early technology-wise, at least to me, and even then, they show articles that are older.
Now I’m confused.
I think this statement at the bottom of the main page:
pretty well covers it, mnemosyne. The site seems to have started in 1996, and the copyright is renewed each succeeding year. All material on the site, doesn’t matter when first written, comes under that copyright.
On top of that, the Chicago Reader have had full copyright over each article Cecil has written since 1973 (WooHoo! Next year’s the 30th anniversary! Cool!) as each one was published.
No need for concern.
Not so much concern as just confusion. I starting thinking too hard and hurt my brain, though I really don’t know ANYTHING about copyright law to begin with. It isn’t easy thinking about something you don’t know anything about! 
Thanks for cleaing it up, though!