The rise of the Internet has made anonymous defamation a reality. Tracking the footprints of anonymous defamation in cyberspace can be dzficult from a legal and technological perspective. Legally, the injured party may need to pursue two defendants -the website that hosted the defamatory statement and the anonymous defamer. This process can be taxing from both an economic and personal perspective, and in some cases will lead to a dead end due to technological roadblocks. One of the primary reasons that the footprints of anonymous defamation can lead to a dead end is that the IP address logs may have been purged. Currently there are no regulations or standards in the industry requiring IP address logs to be preserved for a minimum time period. This article addresses the legal and technological roadblocks that can lead to anonymous defamation and suggests regulatory systems for IP address logs as a means of combating unacceptable anonymous behavior on the Internet.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of trade secrets, reasonable steps to preserve secrecy, trade secret value, misappropriation methods used to acquire trade secrets, various legal remedies, and internal controls to protect trade secrets.Design/methodology/approachA sample of types of civil trade secret cases is highlighted. The paper includes a statutory and legal case study analysis of the elements in a civil trade secrets lawsuit. Analysis of actual trade secret court cases illustrates the importance of private civil lawsuits in combating intellectual property fraud.FindingsThis paper shows the serious impact of trade secret espionage on the success and survival of businesses and the necessity of proving each element of a civil claim under state trade secret law. Also, practical steps necessary to protect an entity's trade secrets are discussed.Practical implicationsThis paper raises the awareness of executives, managers, internal and external auditors, forensic accountants and other interested parties about the severity of trade secret espionage. Also, this paper highlights numerous steps to protect trade secrets.Originality/valueThis paper fills an identified need to inform those involved in the fight against economic crime about the importance of state trade secret laws and internal controls in the fight against intellectual property fraud.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The escalating size of compensation packages to senior managers and investor disillusionment resulted in the issuance of FAS 123(R). Under the current rules, the grant date fair value of employee stock options (ESO) are expensed over the vesting period. The two primary methods used to value ESO are the Black-Scholes closed form equation and the lattice model. Several studies suggested an alternative Simple model for valuing ESO that marks the option expense to market in succeeding financial statement dates and allows for the staggered exercise dates of option holders. This approach is easy to understand, would have a low cost of implementation, and offers a superior estimate of the true cash flow effects and economic injury associated with the opportunity cost to shareholders of ESO exercise. Moreover, the Simple model would head off another threat to the legitimacy of the FASB that is unfolding in the U.S. Congress as Senator Carl Levin holds hearings on ESO in the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to decide what to do about the multi-billion dollar gap between what companies report to stockholders as ESO expense and what they deduct on their tax returns. In addition, this gap results in highly controversial rules of accounting and reporting for the favorable impact of the deductions in the financial statements.</span></span></p>

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Purpose -The most recent IRS estimate puts the individual tax gap at $245 billion per year. This study seeks to develop and review performance measures for the seven most important IRS programs aimed at reducing the tax gap. Design/methodology/approach -The study develops and analyzes performance measures for the last ten years. The performance measures include discovery rates, penalty rates, penalty dollars, abatement rates, abatement dollars, collection activity rates, and criminal enforcement activities (number of special agents, investigations, referrals, indictments, sentences, and length of sentences). Findings -The results are mixed regarding changes in performance measures. There was almost no change in audit rates and increases in other IRS discovery programs. There was a steady decrease in civil penalties for the first seven years followed by increases in latest three years. There were decreases in abatements for most penalties, a dramatic decrease in seizures, and significant increases in liens and levies. There were noteworthy decreases in the number of special agents and criminal investigations. The relatively small number of criminal investigation activities is surprising given the amount of the tax gap. Originality/value -This study examines all major programs aimed at the individual tax gap.