For the sake of jobs and culture, copyright law must be protected

While I was a student at the University of Southern California, the film studio Columbia Pictures took a gamble on me and financed my film “Boyz n the Hood.” That film started a conversation in mainstream culture that was not happening at that time: exploring the black experience in contemporary America. It put the subject front and center — introducing a wide audience to a reality that many of them hadn’t seen or didn’t want to see — which is something we’ve once again set out to accomplish with my current television series, “Snowfall.”

At just 24 years old, I was the youngest person ever nominated for the Oscars for Best Director and for Best Original Screenplay. My career launched in 1991 — before the explosive growth of the internet, before Facebook, Twitter and torrent sites — during one of the creative and financial high points of the entertainment industry. Even then, the odds of convincing a major film company to take a risk on giving a 24-year-old kid from South Central L.A. such an enormous opportunity was highly unlikely. In 2017, I believe it’s nearly impossible.

I’m deeply concerned the creative voices of the next generation won’t have the same opportunities I had.

So, what has changed? There’s certainly no shortage of young talent. On the opportunity end of the equation, however, you can draw a straight line from the widespread digital theft of creative works to the barriers filmmakers face when breaking into the industry.

The American film and television industries sit at the intersection of art and commerce. Although we often like to think we are simply making art, we also need to make back the investors’ money. And, like in any business, investors want to see a potential path to that profitable return before signing a check. That was as true in 1991 as it is today. The difference is that the emergence of online piracy has had a measureable effect on the health of our industry, threatening the financial success of every single television show, indie film and summer blockbuster.

Read more at The Hill