Al-QURAN - NED University

By: SM Waqas ImamIM-101 / T.EThe intellectual property rights give the individualthe right to guard his invention and grant him thepower to dispose of it and stop others from usingthis invention without his permission. The statestackle the protection of this right and punishanyone who may break it during the lifetime ofthe individual, and tens of years after his death.The protection laws also include the "inventor"companies.The problem arises with intellectual propertyrights is that in some realities it becomes amonopolistic property right.What is, 'intellectual monopoly?' When you buy apotato, you can eat it, throw it away, plant it ormake it into a sculpture you can use the 'idea' of apotato embodied in it to make better potatoes orto invent French fries. Current law of intellectualproperty allows producers of any product,technology or commodity to take this freedomaway from you, as in case of computer software ormedical drugs.The EU Property Rights Enforcement Directive is achilling example. It is giving powers to the musicand software industry to detect on people's homecomputers, prosecutes individuals found sharingfiles over the Internet, and empowers police toraid the homes of those. French MEP JanellyFourtou put the bill forward. Her husband is thehead of Vivendi Universal, which owns severalrecord labels.It was in June 2001 a U.S. company Myriaddemanded that all tests must be carried out onlyin its own lab at a cost of US$2500, almost 5 timeswhat was previously being charged in hospitals ofCanadian provinces, they were actually violatingits patents on a test for genetic weakness tobreast cancer. People are dying because ofignorance due to these patents and being forcedto pay inflated sums of money for treatment anddiagnosis!The slogan of “Warring freedoms guardingknowledge” would lead to a new kind of darkages. Newton said, "If I have seen further thanother men, it is because I have stood upon theshoulders of giants.” Question arises if thosegiants hurdle Newton by these so-calledintellectual property rights how would haveNewton stood?Human creativity will grow if set free from the ruleof starving dinosaurs that want to grow fattersitting alone on mountains of gold.GDP or Gross deception??By: Farooq IqbalIM-99 /T.EThe world is at exposure of millions of problemstoday. GDP, which is a measure of country’sdevelopment, is not really in public perspective adevelopment but projected as such. The word“GDP” means Gross Domestic Product. Most ofthe people today believe that the GDP is playingthe vital role in the progress and wellbeing ofpeople. Since we know that “every glitter is not agold “. The ground realities are not such.The GDP accounts every financial transaction aspositive, so the expenses of social decay andnatural disasters are marked as an economicprogress. For example, the dreadful effects ofcrime are verified positively as adding billions ofdollars to the GDP due to the need for locks andother security measures, increased policeprotection, property damage, and medical costs.Hurricane Andrew was a disaster for SouthernFlorida USA, but the GDP traced it as a gain to theeconomy of well over $15 billion.GDP ignores the disadvantage of living on foreignassets. Where governments have enlarged theirexpenditure by borrowing from foreign country,this raises the GDP temporarily, but the need torefund this debt becomes a rising trouble on thestate economy. This downside of borrowing fromabroad is not reflected in the GDP.Above all GDP overlooks the allocation of income.In effect the GDP conceals the information that arising wave does not lift all boats. From 1973 to1993 in the USA, while GDP rose by over 50percent, wages suffered a decline of almost 14percent. Meanwhile, during the 1980s alone, thetop 5 percent of families increased their realincome by almost 20 percent. It now explains whypeople feel increasingly gloomy despite officialclaims of economic of progress and growth.33