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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The Web covers every street in Bracketville

The Spokesman-Review

Watching March Madness and the men’s NCAA basketball tournament has become a totally Web event this year, CBSSportsline announced recently.

Last year, Web viewers had access to streamed video of the first 56 games.

This year, CBS will stream all 63 games on the Web, including the championship game in San Antonio.

Another first: Facebook users can add a March Madness brackets application. You can fill out brackets and challenge other members of Facebook. The application will also provide extra links to additional March Madness Web coverage at CBSSportsline.com.

Web risks decline slightly

A new Internet security analysis finds that computer vulnerabilities decreased last year for perhaps the first time, though researchers behind the report caution that there has been no improvement in Web safety.

The annual “X-Force” report, released last week by Internet Security Systems, part of IBM, says network and software vendors acknowledged 6,437 security flaws in 2007, down 5.4 percent from the prior year.

The full report is at iss.net/x-force_report_images/ 2008/index.html.

Chris Rouland, ISS’s chief technology officer, said that in at least 10 years of counting he had not seen that figure drop. At the same time, Rouland said, vulnerabilities are occurring well above the 4,824 from two years ago in a similar ISS survey.

School coughs up names

Officials at Oklahoma State University agreed to produce students’ names to attorneys for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over a lawsuit filed on behalf of record companies against 11 students.

At first, OSU officials refused to honor the request. Only after a judge threatened the university with a contempt citation did it provide the names.

The RIAA accuses the students of using P2P (peer to peer) networks to infringe on the copyrights of the main four music labels. The students fought to keep their identities secret, filing motions to quash the subpoenas and later attacking the credibility of the RIAA’s expert witness.

The judge denied the motion to quash the subpoenas in November, ordering OSU to provide the identities of the students it believed were behind the IP addresses flagged by a company known as MediaSentry, which works on behalf of the RIAA.