Monday News: Google, Facebook, Addyi, and Love

JanetPublishing Newsaddiction / Addyi / Authors Guild / brain chemistry / copyright / Facebook / Google / Hacking / intellectual property / love / public good / research / security / sexual dysfunction2 Comments

Google’s victory in book-scanning case is a huge win for fair use – Huzzah! Google’s book scanning has been found to be both fair use and transformative in nature by the Second Circuit. The Author’s Guild’s protracted litigation against Google (nearly ten years now!) had numerous problems along the way, but hopefully this will be the end (despite the AG’s claim that it will appeal to SCOTUS ), because the appeals court was pretty clear about the role of copyright in U.S. law and society. While emphasizing that the public is the “primary intended beneficiary” of copyright,

The appeals court, however, pointed out in its decision that the purpose of copyright law is not to guarantee authors a living, nor is it to give them exclusive control over who uses their work and how. The purpose of the law is to provide an incentive for people to create artistic works because doing this benefits society—and ultimately, the social benefit of Google Books outweighed the infringement aspect. – Fortune

The new kind of notification that you never want to see on your Facebook – Facebook users can now look forward to a new type of power from the service: a notification that a person’s account may be under attack by someone working for a nation-state. According to Facebook, this doesn’t mean that the service itself has been hacked, but “it could indicate that that person’s computer or smartphone has malware on it that bad actors are using to seek access to their accounts.” Even with the benefit of such a warning to users, why does everything Facebook does seem invasive?

Facebook says it can’t explain how it attributes attacks to nation-states versus smaller-scale hackers, because it has to “protect the integrity” of its methods and processes, but promises that it will only use that warning notification “where the evidence strongly supports our conclusion.”

In other words, if you get that Facebook notification, you should take it seriously. The company recommends rebuilding or replacing any system that may have been infected by malware, as well as turning on login approvals. – Yahoo & Business Insider

 – The anti-depressant-type drug that’s being (mis)represented as the “female Viagra,” except for the potentially fatal side effects and sketchy science behind the drug’s claims regarding female sexual dysfunction, may now also be used to treat women taking anti-depressants that interfere with their sex drive. Because once these drugs successfully jumped through the FDA’s hoops, they can be prescribed for so-called “off-label” uses (like Rogaine), and doctors may prescribe Addyi even more widely than previously assumed:

Selective serotonin (SSRI) and certain serotonin and noradrenaline (SNRI) reuptake inhibitor antidepressants are particularly likely to cause sexual dysfunction. The exact mechanisms are not well understood but likely stem from boosting serotonin activity in the brain. Serotonin is thought to dampen libido and arousal, and also to inhibit two other neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and dopamine, that promote sexual function. Doctors have tried various strategies, including reducing dosages, prescribing “drug holidays,” and adding in other antidepressants like Wellbutrin or drugs like Ritalin, to counteract these sexual side effects, but have not found a reliable antidote. “There’s nothing really phenomenal out there to treat SSRI-induced dysfunction,” says Christina Dording, a psychiatrist who directs sexual behavior studies at Massachusetts General Hospital’s depression research division. “Clinically we use a variety of different strategies but none of them are perfect.” – Scientific American

This Is Your Brain on Love? – Hmm. Most certainly, the science of love is an important area of scientific research. But are we now going to be explaining so-called “crimes of passion” as a love addiction? And does this mean Romance fiction is dangerous because it might feed someone’s dysfunctional love addiction?

Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher is a senior researcher at the Kinsey Institute who studies love and addiction. In 2014 she wrote a book chapter called “The Tyranny of Love.” According to her research, fMRI scans “indicate that feelings of intense romantic love engage regions of the brain’s ‘reward system,’” she goes on to write, “specifically dopamine pathways associated with energy, focus, motivation, ecstasy, and craving, including primary regions associated with addiction.” . . .

Fisher likens love to an addiction, given they both share several of the same brain systems. “If you look at a photo of your sweetheart, you’ll find the area where dopamine is manufactured—the ventral tegmental area—becomes quite active.” Like any addiction, Fisher believes, love can become dysfunctional. “It is my guess that there are more people in jail from various love addictions than there are from heroin addiction.”  – Daily Beast

Janet

isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnʼt know, didnʼt think about, or didnʼt feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!

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