John Flansburgh on Music Piracy - PBS NewsHour - Sep 9, 2003

On a 2003 episode of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants and songwriter Chuck Cannon are interviewed by Ray Suarez about MP3 piracy and the future of digital music.

[@salange17]

8:41 "Uhhhh, record companies?" Bodied him. Bless you, John.

[@flansyburgh]

john don't care what the haters say fr

[@platypuspracticus2]

A big, unspoken assumption here is that every who downloaded a song or album could have purchased it. That is a very big assumption.

[@bortsbymcbort5350]

he's not : Singer, "They Might Be Giants" he's one of the guys from They Might Be Giants. show respect PBS

[@rattyeely]

This is so scary they put our goofy guy Flansy in a serious debate about intellectual property. He can't even be open about how much he loves piracy

[@JunkyardBashSteve]

yeah TMBG were not the right people to talk to about this if you wanted someone on your side. they pioneered music streaming via Dial A Song and they never made cent off of it. They make music for the sake of making it and spreading it, money has never been their no.1

[@daisychannel2002]

Idc if people pirate music or not I just think John looks really pretty here /j

[@thequeenofnanobots]

every time i see you ina comment section ur just so real

[@daisychannel2002]

@@thequeenofnanobots man pretty what can I say

[@Persun_McPersonson]

@@daisychannel2002 What happened to it being /j (/j)

[@daisychannel2002]

@@Persun_McPersonson im not joking anymore ^_^ man prett y

[@kennethnorman8079]

This is a prime example as to why it's important to have a news service on PBS. Two well informed points of view on a problem. There was no "You're from Nashville so you're an ignorant hillbilly" or "You're from NY so you're a liberal, commie" shite. Just 2 people talking about an issue and listening to each other without demagoguery. That said, Flans was amazingly prescient about the state of the recording industry of the future.

[@bluef00t86]

Actually, surprised by how much I understood the other guy's POV, since he's approaching this from a fundamentally different angle--a hired-gun songwriter who is not a singer or performer is definitely going to have a different relationship to the concept of intellectual property. He's effectively trapped in the safety restraints of an old industry as it goes down like a sinking ship. Even JF's argument is effectively "well, this isn't *good*, but there's no point bailing water now." Still quite funny to ask the Dial-A-Song guy if he thinks widespread music distribution at a loss is a world-ending idea. Don't blame me if the guy's a nut!

[@HeadlineNews]

John and John should be cherished as Gifts from God.

[@CapitalQ]

"Chuck Cannon" sounds like a Suoer Mario World enemy

[@Blurns]

"people are biting the hands that make the music"

[@Dulceria_La_Princesita]

Particle Man was the first song I illegally downloaded.

[@TransCommieFromOuterSpace]

John Flansburgh is cool.

[@miabullafaloni1312]

It's fun to steeeeal~

[@Persun_McPersonson]

A shame it ended there, I wanted to hear John's response

[@horridstank3330]

the other guy literally talks in circles for like 2 minutes straight and all he really says is "if you download a song the artist doesn't get paid. that's so bad oh no."

[@peters-other-stuff]

see that door there? the one marked "pirate"? you think a pirate lives in there?

[@theforklord9463]

well now im picturing that scene as linnell and flans

[@b3lg1an_st3w]

yesssssss!

[@jessss27]

Smart man!!

[@The_GrumpyGills]

You sell the song to the artist. The artist uses the song to get people to go to their shows. Look, everyone got paid.