Taxation of Virtual Assets

The development of vast social networks through Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games has created in-game communities in which virtual assets have real-world values. The question has thus arisen whether such virtual assets are legal subjects of taxation. This iBrief will detail and discuss the various exclusions to taxable income, and analyze their application to the possibility of creating potential tax liability based on in-kind exchanges of virtual assets

The Spectropolarimetric Evolution of V838 Monocerotis

I review photo-polarimetric and spectropolarimetric observations of V838 Mon, which revealed that it had an asymmetrical inner circumstellar envelope following its 2nd photometric outburst. Electron scattering, modified by pre- or post-scattering H absorption, is the polarizing mechanism in V838 Mon's envelope. The simplest geometry implied by these observations is that of a spheroidal shell, flattened by at least 10% and having a projected position angle on the sky of $\sim37^{\circ}$. Analysis of V838 Mon's polarized flux reveals that this electron scattering shell lies interior to the envelope region in which H$\alpha$ and Ca II triplet emission originates. To date, none of the theoretical models proposed for V838 Mon have demonstrated that they can reproduce the evolution of V838 Mon's inner circumstellar environment, as probed by spectropolarimetry.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in ASP Conf. Ser., The Nature of V838 Mon and Its Light Echo, eds. R.L.M. Corradi and U. Munar

EFFECTS OF FOREIGN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ON U.S. BILATERAL EXPORTS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY RELATED AGRICULTURAL INPUTS

This paper examines the effect of foreign intellectual property right (IPR) systems and the policies that comprise them on U.S. exports of biotechnology related agricultural input industries. Policy components include the extent of patent coverage across industry sectors, enforcement mechanisms, provisions for loss of patent protection, memberships to other international patent agreements, and duration of patent protection. Extending the empirical and theoretical work of Smith (2002), this paper uses a gravity model to analyze how IPRs affect the market power and market expansion effects of exports to countries with differing abilities to imitate technology. The findings suggest that strengthening global IPRs grant a market power effect to U.S. exporters; strong IPRs reduce U.S. exports by awarding a temporary monopoly over the protected good. However, the analysis of the individual policy components of an IPR system reveal which components inhibit trade through market power effects and which components counterbalance it through market expansion effects, increasing the flow of trade and access to biotechnology related agricultural inputs.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,