Police blotter: Bomb scare at Cablevision; Comcast hackers headed to pokey

> Police checked, but didn't find an explosive device at a Long Island building where Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) has offices. The MSO reported a bomb threat Sunday evening; the building was cleared of an undisclosed number of employees; and now police are trying to figure out who made the call. A Cablevision spokeswoman, sticking to form, said the MSO would have "no further comment." Story.

> Two members of the hacking group Kryogeniks that took control of Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSA) Comcast.net website in May 2008 have been sentenced to 18 months in prison. The hackers took over an account used to manage Comcast's Domain Name System (DNS) then redirected visitors to their own website. In addition to jail time, the pair also was fined $90,000 in restitution to Comcast. A third hacker got four months in prison during sentencing last month. Story.

> Today's newsletter could be the pilot for a new series, CSI Cable. It's dominated with crimes against humanity and justice being meted out. On that note, the U.S. Department of Justice has proposed both a lawsuit and settlement (and isn't that efficient) over cold calling behavior by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Intuit and Pixar. The DOJ claims the firms--which, if this were a gossip column would be referred to as bold facers--signed deals with each other to prevent one company from cold calling employees of another company with a job offer. Story.

> Pop quiz: To what does this quote refer? "You hire all the lobbyists and lawyers in town; you hand out contributions to every politician you can think of; you buy the affections of every group that might complain about the merger, and you strike fear in the hearts of anyone who will need to do business with you in the future. It's about as subtle as a wet fish in the face." If you guessed Comcast in its quest to acquire NBC Universal, you get a free subscription to Hulu. Oh, wait, Hulu is already free. Nevermind. Story.

> The recession, as reported, must really be over and it's time to get back into a buy, buy, buy mode. FourthWall Media has worked out details with PayPal to "make it possible for cable operators to deploy applications on their EBIF platforms to allow for consumers to access their digital wallet for T-commerce payment." News release.

And finally... speaking of opening wallets, Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) have joined Warner Bros. in talking to cable MSOs about offering almost-new release films for $30 VoD showings. In particular, the studios are talking with the In Demand partnership of Cox Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC-WI). Story.