Index: src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/doap/DoapMojo.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/doap/DoapMojo.java	(revision 672244)
+++ src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/doap/DoapMojo.java	(working copy)
@@ -24,10 +24,17 @@
 import java.io.Writer;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URL;
+import java.text.DateFormat;
+import java.text.ParseException;
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Comparator;
+import java.util.Date;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Locale;
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 import org.apache.maven.artifact.Artifact;
 import org.apache.maven.artifact.factory.ArtifactFactory;
@@ -51,6 +58,7 @@
 import org.apache.maven.scm.provider.svn.repository.SvnScmProviderRepository;
 import org.apache.maven.scm.repository.ScmRepository;
 import org.apache.maven.scm.repository.ScmRepositoryException;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.IOUtil;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.StringUtils;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.WriterFactory;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.PrettyPrintXMLWriter;
@@ -68,6 +76,8 @@
 public class DoapMojo
     extends AbstractMojo
 {
+    private static final Pattern APACHE_LAST_MODIFIED_PATTERN = Pattern.compile( "[\\w\\W]+([0-9]{2}-[A-Za-z]{3}-[0-9]{4})[\\w\\W]+" );
+
     // ----------------------------------------------------------------------
     // Mojo components
     // ----------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -712,9 +722,10 @@
 
                 String fileRelease = repo.getUrl() + "/" + repo.pathOf( artifactRelease );
                 // try to ping the url
+                URL urlRelease;
                 try
                 {
-                    URL urlRelease = new URL( fileRelease );
+                    urlRelease = new URL( fileRelease );
                     urlRelease.openStream();
                 }
                 catch ( MalformedURLException e )
@@ -732,10 +743,61 @@
                 writer.startElement( "file-release" );
                 writer.writeText( fileRelease );
                 writer.endElement(); // file-release
+
+                // Try to handle release date
+                String content;
+                try
+                {
+                    URL urlArtifact = new URL( urlRelease.toString()
+                                               .substring( 0, urlRelease.toString().indexOf( version ) ) );
+                    content = IOUtil.toString( urlArtifact.openStream() );
+                }
+                catch ( MalformedURLException e )
+                {
+                    getLog().debug( e.getMessage(), e );
+                    continue;
+                }
+                catch ( IOException e )
+                {
+                    getLog().debug( e.getMessage(), e );
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                if ( StringUtils.isEmpty( content ))
+                {
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                String[] lines = StringUtils.split( content, "\r\n" );
+                for ( int i = 0; i < lines.length; i++ )
+                {
+                    if ( lines[i].contains( "[DIR]" ) && lines[i].contains( version +"/") )
+                    {
+                        Matcher m = APACHE_LAST_MODIFIED_PATTERN.matcher( lines[i] );
+
+                        if ( m.matches() )
+                        {
+                            DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat( "dd-MMM-yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH );
+
+                            Date date;
+                            try
+                            {
+                                date = dateFormat.parse( m.group( 1 ) );
+                            }
+                            catch ( ParseException e )
+                            {
+                                getLog().debug( e.getMessage(), e );
+                                continue;
+                            }
+
+                            writer.startElement( "created" );
+                            writer.writeText( new SimpleDateFormat( "yyyy-MM-dd", Locale.ENGLISH ).format( date ) );
+                            writer.endElement(); // created
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
             }
 
-            // TODO: how to handle release date?
-
             writer.endElement(); // Version
             writer.endElement(); // release
         }