Bedford School

[Guest]

I have just come off the phone with Philip Evans. He is very upset with the fact that I have posted details of our conflict with Bedford School on this Forum. He has claimed that I have libelled Bob Eadie and suggested he will take legal action against me. Of course it is an empty threat and during the conversation he admitted that Eadie had lied to me about not downloading the Spartacus Educational website onto the Bedford School server. The new story is that their software only downloaded four pages from the Spartacus website and four links from my website. He claims that this was like photocopying a page from a textbook and therefore they did not need to get copyright permission from me. It also his attempt to explain why Bedford School tried to download the Education Forum "it must have been a glitch in the software". All nonsense of course.

The other thing Philip Evans threatened me with was that he is going to call in an expert to examine their server. If he discovers that Bob Eadie is telling the truth he will send me the expert’s bill.

He has gone away promising to try and discover why his server was trying to access the Forum 880,000 times a day. I await his telephone call.

I don't know where these public school types get their bloody nerve from but I sure wouldn't one of them in my tooth!

On three seperate occassions this site has suffered real and well documented financial harm from someone acting within the Bedford School IP range.

Instead of an apology and an effective response John gets threatened with legal action for daring to speculate whether this activity was of a malicious nature or just down to good old fashioned incompetence...... unbelievable!

[Robin Unger]

Hi Andy.

For some reason i have lost my "Cut & Paste" function when making or editing a post.

my Right mouse click function will not work any more.

This only seems to apply to THIS board, on other forums i visit it works without any problems.

[Guest]

Hi Andy.

For some reason i have lost my "Cut & Paste" function when making or editing a post.

my Right mouse click function will not work any more.

This only seems to apply to THIS board, on other forums i visit it works without any problems.

Have you tried using control "C" and control "V"?

[Robin Unger]

Hi Andy.

For some reason i have lost my "Cut & Paste" function when making or editing a post.

my Right mouse click function will not work any more.

This only seems to apply to THIS board, on other forums i visit it works without any problems.

Have you tried using control "C" and control "V"?

Thanks Andy.

My right click mouse function seems to have returned.

My "cut and paste" looks to be working now, hopefully i won't have anymore trouble from here on.

Thanks for you timely response to my Question.

[John Simkin]

This is the letter I have just received from solicitors working for Bedford School:

We act for the Harpur Trust, the charitable trust that owns and is responsible for the governance of Bedford School ("the School").

We have been instructed by the Head Master of the School, Dr Philip Evans, that you and your colleagues, who are responsible for the website www.educationforum.ipb/iost.com, are accusing the School of having on the staff a person or persons unknown who is/are maliciously seeking to bring down this website by using up all your monthly allocation of bandwidth.

You are also accusing the Computer System Manager, Mr Bob Eadie, of knowing the identity of the person(s) responsible. You have no direct evidence for these serious accusations, which we are instructed are untrue.

You have now published aspects of these accusations in a public form, namely:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...opic=4676&st=45

We enclose a copy of a printout from the forum. We understand that the School has an explanation for what has been occurring; an explanation which you refuse to accept. Accordingly, the School is carrying out a full investigation which will indicate whether its explanation is correct or not.

We have advised our client that, in the absence of justification, the statements that are being published in this forum are defamatory and we must insist that, while this matter is under investigation, you remove the relevant thread from the forum. We assume that, as a "Super Member" you have the ability to do so but, for the avoidance of doubt, we are copying this letter by fax to Andy Walker, the Administrator of the forum.

If this thread is not removed from the forum by 4pm on Friday, 4 November 2005, we will consider with our client what further action may be necessary.

When we have received the results of the School's investigations, we will then consider what further action our client may wish to take but, in the meantime, all our client's rights are reserved.

We look forward to hearing from you.

[Tim Gratz]

Would they have waived their clients rights if they had not "reserved" them?

Legalese looks similar on both sides of the pond!

[John Simkin]

Bedford School, along with 40 other private schools has just been found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel which investigators said had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents.

Following one of the biggest inquiries in its history, the Office of Fair Trading published provisional findings showing the schools, which include Eton and Harrow, had exchanged detailed financial information in a regular report known as the Sevenoaks survey.

"This ... systematic exchange of confidential information as to intended fee increases was anti-competitive and resulted in parents being charged higher fees than would otherwise be the case," the OFT stated.

The inquiry has focused fresh attention on the benefits private schools derive from their charitable status - a controversial tax exemption that critics say effectively amounts to a government subsidy - in return for questionable wider "public benefit".

Yesterday the Charities Commission said it would be looking closely at the implications of the ruling for private schools and charities in general.

Earlier this year research by the Halifax building society showed that school fees had risen by more than three times the rate of inflation over the last 20 years. The schools now have until March to appeal when the OFT will make its final ruling and decide what fines, if any, to impose.

The OFT can fine each school up to 10% of its annual turnover, but yesterday's statement said any financial penalties were likely to be limited.

The OFT investigation focused on fee rises between 2001 and 2004 and found that in each year, schools swapped details of their intended fees. Sevenoaks school in Kent then "collated that information and circulated it, in the form of tables, to the schools concerned. The information in the tables was updated and circulated between four and six times each year as schools developed their fee-increase proposals in the course of their annual budgetary processes."

The investigation was reportedly started by a student who hacked into his school's financial records and leaked the documents to the press.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/publicscho...1638934,00.html

[Guest]

Bedford School, along with 40 other private schools has just been found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel which investigators said had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/publicscho...1638934,00.html

An interesting story John, one which may or may not shed light on the morality of the leadership of the quoted institutions.

I am still deeply perplexed as to why someone working from within the Bedford School IP range should have seemingly attacked this forum so viciously and consistently.

Solicitors acting for the Bedford School have said that the attacks on this site are subject to an internal investigation.

I would contend that it is the police who should be investigating this matter and that we should be pressing Bedford School not just for an explanation but for substantial and appropriate compensation.