MPAA initiative to boost security and prevent piracy leaks

Two entertainment associations have launched a joint security initiative in a bit to improve the security of content and minimise the risk of hackers obtaining and releasing pirated material.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced the Trusted Partner Network (TPN), in collaboration with the Content Delivery and Security Association (CDSA), on Monday, April 2.

Both the MPAA and CDSA work with the entertainment industry to protect film and TV content. Members of MPAA include Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros.

The initiative is intended to raise the security standards of production and distribution and prevent piracy leaks, breaches, and hacks of film and TV content.

According to the release, the TPN is a voluntary and cost-effective way to assess the security of an organisation in the context of best practices.

Vendors that opt to complete the TPN assessment will be published in a directory of “trusted partners” which will be available to content owners worldwide. Assessments will be renewed annually, and TPN said it will be recruiting assessors to conduct these from spring 2018.

Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of MPAA, added that “maintaining high-security standards for all third-party operations from script to screen is such an important part of preventing the theft of creative works”.

The joint security initiative comes shortly after antipiracy consultancy MUSO reported that more than 300 billion visits to piracy sites were made in 2017, and more than a third of the visits were to view TV content.

Last year, the US charged an Iranian national after he hacked into cable TV network HBO to steal unreleased episodes of “Game of Thrones”. Behzad Mesri then threatened to release the episodes unless he was paid $6 million.

In 2016, Government Communications Headquarters, a UK-based security organisation, intervened to successfully prevent the leak of a “Harry Potter” book on the internet, prior to its publication.