One of our favorite YouTubers is a lawyer named Devin Stone who runs the uber-popular YouTube channel Legal Eagle. The channel has dozens of videos, over 2 million subscribers, and more than 300 million views.
This guy seems to know his stuff, he's articulate, and he's easy to understand. Definitely worth listening to!
One caveat: Mr. Stone has several videos that relate to political legal issues. No recommendation is made (or implied) for those videos. Not because I disagree (or agree) with his views, but because I have tried to keep divisive political discussion out of our community here.
In several past columns I have talked about controlling your creative output, and I’ve talked about some of the issues that affect that control. Just last week we talked about having those difficult conversations with our families about what to do with our intellectual property after we are gone.
Stone is an excellent speaker, with a likable on-screen persona and a confident manner. He also takes pains to make complex legal concepts and arguments accessible and understandable to the non-lawyer audience.
Legal Eagle has been around for more than four years, and the videos are worth browsing for topics you might find entertaining. He has an entire series of videos about succeeding in law school, and another series examining the reality of legal scenes in movies and TV.
But for the purpose of our discussion here I want to point you to one of his most recent. I have already watched this several times, letting the implications percolate in my brain. How Taylor Swift (Legally) Changed Music Forever ft. Rick Beato looks at how Ms. Swift left her former music publisher and took complete control of her creative output, and the laws that empowered that change.
To my mind this video is a must-watch for every creative person. It will help you understand how the laws of intellectual property work, and should spur you to investigate further so that you begin to understand your own legal power when it comes to controlling your creations.
This column is short and sweet so you have time to go watch a 20-minute video. Grab a beverage, get comfortable, and enjoy!