This week, we cover the final installment of our summarized history of Second Life and Linden Lab (check out the first installment or the second, if you missed them). It's only possible to cover a tiny fraction of the events that took place in the space we have here, but the highlights paint an interesting picture.

We'll be working our way from 2008 to June 2010, and looking at what future directions we expect from there.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, 2008-2010 and beyond

The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, 2008-2010 and beyond originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Nothing is certain but death and taxes"; a rather sardonic and bleak proverb, quoted and paraphrased by a number of famous figures over the years. The earliest on record was Daniel Defoe, in The Political History of the Devil in 1726.

Well, this week the death part doesn't concern us so much as the taxes.

Many Americans have spent this month scrambling to get their taxes filed, and for many of the rest of us our own turn comes due in just a couple of months. With that in mind, I thought I'd talk about the taxation status of virtual assets.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Death and taxes

The Virtual Whirl: Death and taxes originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 May 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading IRS saves on recruitment costs with Second Life?

IRS saves on recruitment costs with Second Life? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

At last week's Game Developers Conference 2009, we got the chance to sit in on Mark Methenitis' talk on How to avoid new legal pitfalls in virtual world design and policy. You may have noticed the sheer quantity of legal cases, rulings and issues surrounding virtual environments and MMOGs that have direct impacts on users and players lately.

We found the talk to be an engaging and interesting one, which certainly went a long way towards clarifying some of the past, present and future problems and we've got a tasty summary of the highlights for you.

Continue reading GDC09: How to avoid new legal pitfalls in virtual world design and policy

GDC09: How to avoid new legal pitfalls in virtual world design and policy originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Section 7803(c)(2)(B)(ii) of the Internal Revenue Code requires the National Taxpayer Advocate to submit a report to Congress each year and in it, among other things, to identify at least 20 of the most serious problems encountered by taxpayers and to make administrative and legislative recommendations to mitigate those problems. Thus, the statute requires that the report focus on problems and areas in need of improvement.

Of the 20 "most serious problems encountered by taxpayers", number 13 is The IRS Should Proactively Address Emerging Issues Such as Those Arising From "Virtual Worlds".

For the impatient, who just want the sound-bite, it boils down to the position that the existing US Tax Code already covers much of what takes place in virtual environments, with respect to assets, virtual currencies and transactions. Indeed most of the Code already deals with many things that are no less virtual and no more corporeal than are virtual environments. The only real issue the IRS seems to have with it is a lack of information on the part of the taxpayer about if, when and how to report and pay their taxes relating to virtual environment activities, and the lack of any uniform positional advice.

Continue reading IRS reports to Congress: Virtual worlds/MMOGs have always been taxable

IRS reports to Congress: Virtual worlds/MMOGs have always been taxable originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.