Skip Navigation
Megan McArdle

Megan McArdle - Megan McArdle is a senior editor for The Atlantic who writes about business and economics. She has worked at three start-ups, a consulting firm, an investment bank, a disaster recovery firm at Ground Zero, and The Economist. She is currently on leave.
More

Megan was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and yes, she does enjoy her lattes, as well as the occasional extra-dry skim-milk cappuccino. Her checkered work history includes three start-ups, four years as a technology project manager for a boutique consulting firm, a summer as an associate at an investment bank, and a year spent as sort of an executive copy girl for one of the disaster-recovery firms at Ground Zero � all before the age of 30.

While working at Ground Zero, Megan started Live From the WTC, a blog focused on economics, business, and cooking. She may or may not have been the first major economics blogger, depending on whether we are allowed to throw outlying variables such as Brad Delong out of the set. From there it was but a few steps down the slippery slope to freelance journalism. She has worked in various capacities for The Economist, where she wrote about economics and oversaw the founding of Free Exchange, the magazine's economics blog. She has also maintained her own blog, Asymmetrical Information, which moved to The Atlantic, along with its owner, in August 2007.

Megan holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. After a lifetime as a New Yorker, she now resides in northwest Washington, D.C., where she is still trying to figure out what one does with an apartment larger than 400 square feet.
« Previous McArdle | Next McArdle » Email Email Print Print

Orphan Works

By Megan McArdle

Mar 27 2011, 10:37 AM ET Comment

Julian Sanchez ponders the problem of "orphan works"--copyrighted material that is still within our nation's absurd copyright terms, but where the owners cannot be found.  This is the issue that seems to have brought down the Google Books settlement.  


As Julian notes, it's puzzling that this hasn't been resolved.  Julian asks "Who's the rational veto player here?" and I can't think of an obvious candidate.  And yet, congress has not seen fit to do something about the problem, even though resolving it would seem to be a rare example of pareto improving legislation: readers get to enjoy the material, while the copyright holders, who aren't collecting royalties now, are no worse off.

I suspect the answer is either that Congress simply overlooked this issue, or that there is some reason to block it that Julian and I don't understand.  I know I have IP people among my readership, so . . . which is it?


Presented by

More at The Atlantic

Does the Supreme Court Believe in Double Jeopardy Protections? Does the Supreme Court Believe in Double Jeopardy Protections?
Meet the 'Fly Boys' of Memphis, the Future of American Education Meet the 'Fly Boys' of Memphis, the Future of Education
The New Welfare State: Faster, Cheaper ... and Out of Control? The New Welfare State: Faster, Cheaper ... and Out of Control?
Fact-Checking Claims on the Wonders of Pomegranate Juice Fact-Checking Claims on the Wonders of Pomegranate Juice
Buying a Piece of America: Why Chinese Shoppers Love U.S. Brands Why Chinese Shoppers Love American Brands

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Correspondents

View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Where in the World? Part 3: A Google Earth Puzzle

May 25, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

Megan McArdle
from the Magazine

Why You Can’t Get a Taxi

And how an upstart company may change that

Europe’s Real Crisis

The Continent’s problems are as much demographic as financial. They won’t go away soon.

Why Companies Fail

GM’s stock price has sunk by a third since its IPO. Why is corporate turnaround so difficult…