diff --git a/make/scripts/update_copyright_year.sh b/make/scripts/update_copyright_year.sh
index bb61d48c91c..578ab4cbc99 100644
--- a/make/scripts/update_copyright_year.sh
+++ b/make/scripts/update_copyright_year.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash -f
 
 #
-# Copyright (c) 2010, 2024, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2010, 2025, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 # DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 #
 # This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
@@ -41,10 +41,6 @@ set -e
 # To allow total changes counting
 shopt -s lastpipe
 
-# Get an absolute path to this script, since that determines the top-level directory.
-this_script_dir=`dirname $0`
-this_script_dir=`cd $this_script_dir > /dev/null && pwd`
-
 # Temp area
 tmp=/tmp/`basename $0`.${USER}.$$
 rm -f -r ${tmp}
@@ -98,10 +94,16 @@ while getopts "c:fhy:" option; do
 done
 
 # VCS check
+git_installed=false
+which git > /dev/null && git_installed=true
+if [ "$git_installed" != "true" ]; then
+  echo "Error: This script requires git. Please install it."
+  exit 1
+fi
 git_found=false
-[ -d "${this_script_dir}/../../.git" ] && git_found=true
+git status &> /dev/null && git_found=true
 if [ "$git_found" != "true" ]; then
-  echo "Error: Please execute script from within make/scripts."
+  echo "Error: Please execute script from within a JDK git repository."
   exit 1
 else
   echo "Using Git version control system"