Clients always asked me if they should go through the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) assessment or not even bother with it. As a consultant, I like to give them the “it depends” answer :). Joking aside, we need to step back and remember the reason for the TPN and why there is a push for it. All of us must understand that we are here to create. Creation is power and you know what comes with power? You guessed it, great responsibilities. We are all responsible for the content we create and work with. TPN and similar programs from the major studios were created exactly for that. To ensure all of us are taking part of this power that was given to us and being responsible for it.
The Trusted Partner Network was launched in 2008 as a collaboration between MPA (Motion Picture Association, formerly MPAA – Motion Picture Association of America) and Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA), with its original program goal of establishing security benchmarks and a site security assessment to prevent content leaks and piracy.
It was a voluntary avenue giving vendors a path to assess the security preparedness of their facilities, staff, and workflows against industry best practices. Vendors who completed the assessment were published in a directory of “trusted partners” accessible to content owners and producers worldwide.
In 2022, The TPN changed to sole ownership by the MPA entirely and announced plans for a new multi-tiered membership model providing expanded capabilities, greater flexibility, efficiency, and transparency to global content owners and service providers in the M & E Industry (launching in Feb 2023). It continues expanding its offerings in response to the continuing growth in multi-layered and cloud-native supply chains and workflows.
Today TPN is taking yet another turn in an attempt to fix what the original TPN lacked. The program is fairly new and due to the recent strike and skepticism, adaptation is slow. Having said that, every studio have their own content security teams in an effort to ensure their content is safe and secure. Therefore, TPN or not, each of us will still need to follow guidelines and deal with some security in some capacity. The TPN provides some kind of assurance that best practices are followed and the major studios consider this greatly.
TPN is not easy and can be a lengthy process. TPN can also be costly… With that in mind, is it worth it? To answer that, we need to look at several aspects:
1: Your relationship with content owners –
This one can be somewhat political but an important one. If your work requires interaction with a single content owner and you have complete trust with them, you may be in a good position to avoid TPN. Assuming you are taking security seriously and do the best to protect the content, you may be in the clear for future projects from this content owner. However, you must keep in mind that management changes, and people move on. This can become an issue when rules change and now you must provide answers to new individuals. Also, if you ever consider taking work from other content owners, you may find yourself needing to answer to their content security team. In that case TPN may be a good idea.
2: Company size –
While TPN can technically address any size company, we must remember why we turn to TPN in the first place. Small companies tend to be more efficient and can keep security controls tight much easier than larger organizations can. It certainly does not excuse anyone from skipping security all together but you may be able to follow the guidelines without spending a fortune on TPN. You may also find that major studios may have different expectations from the small shops out there.
3: Security –
The whole point of TPN is to increase the security posture for companies dealing with content. If you decide to take security seriously, going for TPN will certainly give you that. There is a perfectly good “Do it yourself” model assuming you are following some security guidelines to keep content safe. Keep in mind that even this model will require time and some kind of investment so be prepared for that. The MPA continues to update its best practices and you can certainly follow that. If you do, you may even be ready to go through the audit anyway so why not doing it? Yes, there is a cost for the audit but if you can avoid “free” audits from 5 different major studios, is it worth it? Your call…
In Conclusion
The TPN is a serious commitment. TPN will increase your security posture. TPN will demonstrate to major studios that you are serious about security. Whether you decide to improve security posture or prepare for TPN, Zalcore can help. Contact us for your free consultation.