No, because copyright law doesn't care what the copyright date says, or even if you write it at all. As soon as you write something, you have the copyright to

No, because copyright law doesn't care what the copyright date says, or even if you write it at all. As soon as you write something, you have the copyright to what you wrote. If it was challenged in court, he would likely easily be able to show his drafts from prior to 12/29/2018 to prove he was the author.