The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has teamed up with the Content Delivery and Security Association (CDSA) to form the Trusted Partner Network, aimed at filling cracks in the digital supply chain that lead to movie and TV piracy. The Trusted Partner Network launched on Monday and will become a "global clearinghouse" that will set security standards for movie and TV production and distribution companies. Here's what MPAA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin had to say in his statement about the Trusted Partner Network.

"Creating the films and television shows enjoyed by audiences around the world increasingly requires a network of specialized vendors and technicians. That's why 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 and ultimately protects jobs and the health of our vibrant creative economy."

The Trusted Partner Network will be funded jointly by the MPAA and the CDSA, although participants in the TPN will not be publicly listed, and only verified members will get access to the full directory. Companies wishing to be part of the Trusted Partner Network will need to get initial approval from an individual assessment company, and then the vendor must hire a "qualified assessor" from the TPN database to examine the company's security protocols. The first class of "qualified assessors" will be tested this week, with the "full rollout" of the TPN program slated for June 2018. The TPN is headed by chairman/president Dan Robbins, the senior VP and associate general counsel of the MPAA and CEO Guy Finley, executive director of the CDSA. Here's what Finley had to say in his statement.

"Our goal is to create a dynamic industry program where entertainment vendors demonstrate to content owners around the world that they strive for the highest levels of security for their client's content."

The Trusted Partner Network has been compared to industry-wide security protocols that have been put in place in other industries such as finance, payment processing and health care. This program aims on greatly reducing the assessments that studios and individual content owners perform on a regular basis. The MPAA and CDSA noted that vendors are not given a "pass/fail" grade or rating, but rather it's an assessment of a company's preparedness for compliance with the MPAA content security best practices.

The assessment reports will be shared throughout the TPN platform, and vendors can choose to share these reports with customers outside the TPN at their own discretion. This move also coincides with the CDSA ending its Content Protection Security (CPS) program for vendor auditing, which ended its run on March 31. Hopefully there will be more details available soon before the full TPN program is unveiled in full this coming June, as the fight to contain piracy continues. Until then, you can head over to Variety for their full report on the new Trusted Partner Network.