A very simple custom Wordpress widget.

copyright-widget.php

/**
 * Copyright Widget
 */

class my_custom_copyright_widget extends WP_Widget {
    /** constructor */
        function my_custom_copyright_widget() {
            parent::WP_Widget(false, $name = 'Copyright Text');
        }
    /** @see WP_Widget::widget */
        function widget($args, $instance) {
            extract( $args );

            // these are our widget options
            $text = $instance['text'];      // single value
           
            $localize_array = array(
                        'text'    => $text,
                );

                
             //echo $before_widget; // start widget display code ?>
             
               <span class="copyright">
                <?php echo $text; ?>
              </span> 

            <?php 
        }
    /** @see WP_Widget::update */
        function update($new_instance, $old_instance) {
            $instance = $old_instance;
            $instance['text'] = strip_tags($new_instance['text']);
            return $instance;
        }
     /** @see WP_Widget::form */
    function form($instance) {  
        $text = esc_attr($instance['text']);
        ?>

        <p>
            <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('text'); ?>"><?php _e('Text:'); ?></label>
            <textarea rows="3" class="widefat" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('text'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('text'); ?>" type="text" value=""><?php echo $text; ?></textarea>
        </p>        

        <?php
    }
}
// register Copyright widget
add_action('widgets_init', create_function('', 'return register_widget("my_custom_copyright_widget");'));

HI,
Thanks for sharing this code, but I am having troubles using it because the code runs successfully but I don't see any output in the widgets menu. Can you help me out here. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks a lot.