Happy New Year, everyone! I hope that 2025 is off to a good start for you!
2024 was a difficult time – for me, and for this site. For a while I had to take the whole site offline, and even considered getting rid of it entirely.
You see, I was approached by a firm which claimed that I had violated copyright by using an image that didn’t belong to me; and they demanded money on behalf of the copyright holder.
Quite a lot of money.
Is it a scam?
When I looked into it, I found that this kind of claim has become very common, particularly in recent months.
It’s not a scam, as such. The firms which do this (they’re usually based in Germany, for some reason I don’t quite understand) are technically on the right side of the law.
But it’s not in good faith either. These companies are using AI to trawl through thousands of sites at a time. Any time an image is flagged up, they demand money on behalf of the copyright holder, even if they don’t actually have any connection to whoever that is.
It wasn’t just my own website that was targeted.
I’ve heard of two other Classics-related sites that have received similar messages, and I have my suspicions about a few more which have mysteriously shut up shop lately.
In my case, the image that caused the trouble had been sent to me by a contributor several years ago – and I’d included it in a post without thinking to ask where it came from. I’m usually pretty cautious about images, using only my own or images from free download sites: but in this case (during lockdown, when everything was chaotic) I hadn’t checked.
Luckily, because this is a website set up for educational purposes (and since several other necessary conditions were also met), I managed to argue successfully that my use of that particular image did not legally constitute a copyright infringement.
It’s a cautionary tale for anyone out there with a similar website. Now might be a good time for a thorough spring clean of your content, because AI is watching…
Existential doubts
Of course the situation prompted me to look back through my archives – and I realised that I was uncertain about the origins of far too many of the images that I’ve included over the years.
At that point I seriously considered winding up this site for good.
Why did I start all of this in the first place?
Why am I still blogging, after all these years?
Is anyone out there still reading or benefiting from my posts?
Don’t I have anything better to do with my nonexistent spare time?
I had to do a fair amount of thinking, tinkering and planning before I could settle to bringing the site back online.
New purpose
The world of online Classics has changed a lot since I started this in 2017. Back then, there was a sense of community, and also a feeling that there were new possibilities just waiting to be opened up, if you could only find the right words and the right audience.
It’s not the same now. It’s difficult to put my finger on exactly why – but the feeling of energy and optimism has definitely dwindled.
Nevertheless…
When I thought about closing down this site, I found that I didn’t want to. It’s how I communicate – and I find that I still have a great deal that I want to say. Losing this site would feel like losing part of my voice.
So I think I’d like to keep this blog, and all the associated resources, running for a while longer – and I hope to use it to say some of those things on my list. I don’t know whether people will like the things I have to say, or even read them at all. But the older I get, the less I seem to care what people think.
It’s rather a nice feeling!
New support
I was given some unexpected support lately by a new student, who decided in December to fundraise for Classical Studies Support. She asked friends and family for donations instead of birthday presents, and they very kindly obliged. So thank you Mhairi, and everyone who donated! Your generosity will pay all the hosting costs for the site for the next 2 years, AND pay for another couple of things that I’ve been thinking about adding for a while.
Nobody’s ever helped me with the site costs before, so I’m absolutely thrilled!
The fundraiser is closed now – but I promised Mhairi that I would put a ‘donate’ button on the site homepage, just in case anyone ever wants to contribute in the future!
New site, new order
As you’ll see, I’ve taken the opportunity to refresh the site a bit, and move things around. I’ve also cut out a lot of old images, so you’ll notice lots of old posts that don’t have pictures any more.
I also need to be a lot more cautious about images in the future – because even images that seem to be copyright-free when you download them can be the subject of a later claim. I’m very nervous about this now! So you can expect a lot more of my own photos and images in posts to come.
Mostly, though, this site is going to pivot more towards research. I’ve got a couple of big Classics projects on the go this year, which I REALLY want to tell you all about; and I think I’ll be using my blog to talk quite a bit about my reading and research. So watch this space…!
Happy New Year!
Cora Beth.
Classical Studies Support 
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