Good morning, it’s Monday, May 17, 2010, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

It looks as though Google has knocked Facebook off the headlines for a day at least. In a post on its public policy blog, Google admitted that its Street View cars that capture images of public streets for the web have been “mistakenly” collecting unsecured content flowing across individual WiFi networks, dating back to 2006. The cars collected and stored such information as sites users visited, files they downloaded or videos they watched. European privacy regulators, which had been looking into potential privacy breaches made by the service, expressed doubt that the data collection was accidental on Google’s part. Privacy advocates such as Consumer Watchdog also reacted to the incident, calling for government inspection of the data the company collects and stores.
 

 
Teen idol Justin Bieber has disappeared from the list of “trending topics” on Twitter after the site tweaked the algorithm to better define what’s popular “right now.” The previous version put more weight on past topics.
 
San Francisco-based classified site Craigslist launched a weekly web series to help market the benefits of the site. Project Runway producer Drew Brown is producing episodes of Craigslist TV like this one about an aspiring fashion designer creating a dress for Sandra Bullock, with new webisodes appearing each Tuesday.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM NATPE

 
Break Media unveiled its “Captain Morgan Day,” its most ambitious branded entertainment production effort yet and the second installment of a three-part campaign to highlight the rum brand’s 375th birthday. The video can be found on a custom branded channel created at Break.com.
 

 
The truth about that missing iPhone was finally revealed on Friday after riveting court papers in the matter were unsealed at the request of a coalition of publications. It turns out that Brian Hogan who found the lost phone left at a Redwood City bar by an Apple engineer out celebrating his 21st birthday party, actually shopped it around to several publications before selling it to Gizmodo. (He received $5,000 upfront and the promise of another $3,500 if Apple ends up unveiling the new phone this July.) One of Hogan’s roommates, who went to the authorities after fear of being implicated in the fiasco, said she tried to talk him out of it because it would ruin the young engineer’s career. Apple CEO Steve Jobs even made a personal plea demanding the iPhone’s return. Gizmodo writer Jason Chen remains under investigation for receiving and damaging stolen property and Hogan’s roommates may also face charges for attempting to hide evidence.
 
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington granted a rare review of a March ruling that found Dish Network guilty of illegally copying Tivo‘s DVR technology. The ruling, which followed countless repeals, could have resulted in the satellite TV provider having to disable millions of DVRs. Shares of Tivo dropped sharply on the news.
 
Conversely, shares of Netflix reached a record high last week, as rumors of a possible acquisition by Amazon resurfaced.
 
Blockbuster reported another poor quarter recording a net loss of $65.4 million as revenue dropped to $939.3 million, down from $1.09 billion a year ago. The losses come after the company carved out new agreements with studios for exclusive rights to new releases, 28 days before rivals Netflix and Redbox have access to them. Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes noted that the company would continue to move into kiosk and mobile markets and that new agreements and the bankruptcy of rival Movie Gallery would help boost revenues.
 

 
Securing VOD releases on the same day that movies are released on DVD is helping to drive increased VOD usage, with 6 of the top 10 VOD-rented movies proving to be day-and-date releases, according to the latest Rentrak OnDemand Essentials ranking.
 
Top Ten VOD Titles for week ending May 9, 2010
Rank Title                       Studio           VOD Release   Rating   Box Office ($M)
1 It’s Complicated*        Universal             4/27/10     R             112.7
2 Leap Year*                  Universal             5/04/10     PG           25.9
3 Avatar                         FOX                    5/09/10     PG-13    748.0
4 The Lovely Bones*       Paramount           4/20/10     PG-13      44.0
5 Men Who Stare at Goats Anchor Bay        4/21/10     R             32.4
6 The Blind Side*            Warner Bros.        3/23/10    PG-13     255.1
7 Crazy Heart*                Fox                     4/20/10     R             39.2
8 Alvin and Chipmunks:
   The Squeakquel            Fox                     4/06/10     PG         219.5
9  Sherlock Holmes*        Warner Bros.        3/30/10     PG-13    208.7
10  2012                         Sony                   4/01/10     PG-13    166.1
Source: Rentrak OnDemand Essentials, * Indicates day-and-date with home video release.
 
The videogame industry continued its downward spiral in April, experiencing its worst year-over-year decline since July ’09, and the fourth largest year-over-year percentage decline ever, according to NPD Group research. Nintendo sold 277,2000 Wiis, down from 557,500 in March and 340,000 a year ago. Sales of the Nintendo DS were also down to 440.8k from 700,800 in March and 1.04 million a year ago as many wait for the new 3-D DS model to come out. Microsoft sold 185,400 Xbox 360s, up slightly from a year ago; and Sony sold 180,800 PS3s, down from 313,900 in March, but up from 127,000 a year ago. On the software side, March ’10 new releases fell off more dramatically after their initial month of sales than a year ago, declining 75% month-to-month.
 
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

 
NBC‘s official cancelling of Law & Order on Friday has sent shockwaves of remorse and frustration across the web. Rumors of the cancellation began to fly on Twitter on Thursday, along with reports that last-minute negotiations were underway to allow for a truncated 21sr season. The latest is that creator Dick Wolf in talks with NBC to produce a movie or series retrospective to say goodbye, per the NYTimes, but Deadwood fans are still waiting for something similar on HBO 5 years after the fact. As it stands now, the L&O faithful are going to have to make due with a 12th season of Law & Order: SVU and a new spin off of the venerated franchise, this time set in L.A. (Yes – first the Dodgers migrate to the City of Angles, now the L&O.) And young New York actors are going to have to find a new place to hone their skills. But luckily this happened in the age of social networking and there are already teams of Facebook pages to help, if nothing else, to achieve closure. Check out the Save Law & Order page, started by Olympic skiing star (and uber fan of the show) Lindsey Vonn. (Lindsey, who guest stars in next week’s episode, writes, “we need to band together to help save this classic show! Where would we be without Sam Waterston and S. Epatha Merkerson!”) Click on “Save Law & Order! and Others” for the full run down of postings, which include links to other efforts such the Keep Law and Order on the air page. It will be interesting to see if this can make an impact. Hey, it got Betty White hosting SNL!

Later – Wayne
Wayne Karrfalt for Cynopsis: Digital
wayne@cynopsis.com
05.17.10

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