Friday, November 12,2004
Ask ASCII: What are
your Digital Rights ?
By Logan Stack
staff writer
Dear ASCII
I’ve heard about something called DRM being
in the next version of Windows, and Microsoft get
ting into trouble over it. What is DRM?
- Please withhold my name so the Microsoft spies
can’t track me down.
Dear Nervous
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. It
is something which has been intensely worked on
ever since Napster started making headlines. Ba
sically what DRM does is explain to your com
puter what it is and is not allowed to do with the
files on it.
With DRM, a band could let you download a
song for free, but set the DRM to permit the song
to play only six times before sending you to the
band’s web page, where you would be asked to
buy the CD. Then, if you buy the music, they can
hand you a file and let you make as many backup
copies as you’d like, but prevent you from trans
ferring the song to another computer so that you
can’t give it to your friends.
There are a myriad of other uses too. For ex
ample, an author could give out free downloads
of a book but prevent you from printing it; or you
could download a movie from an online rental
place, and the movie file would expire and be
unplayable once the rental period ended.
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Does this sound like the end of music swapping?
Don’t worry, it’s not, there are always going to be
ways to work around any protection. But it’s one
more annoyance to try to circumvent, so many
companies are hoping it will reduce piracy and
increase sales.
DRM is a hard problem to solve. The files must
not contain all of the information needed to play
the song (or movie, game, book, whatever) be
cause if they did, it would be easy to make a pro
gram that ripped that information out of the DRM
protected file and placed it in a non-protected file,
thus foiling the DRM. So it is likely that you will
not be able to play your DRM-protected music
without a connection to the Internet.
There are a variety of other problems too, such
as plugging the digital speaker output into a digi
tal audio input on another computer and making a
perfect recording - workarounds like this are very
difficult to solve. When people use analogue (like
our parents did with blank tapes), it’s nigh on im
possible to protect the music from piracy.
Recently Microsoft has gotten into trouble with
the European Union over the company’s attempts
to acquire a small firm which is making DRM soft
ware. Microsoft helped set it up and now wants to
buy out the other owner’s interest, but the EU may
stop the takeover in order to prevent Microsoft
from developing a monopoly on DRM software.
Do you have a computer question? Send it to
ASK ASCII! E-mail lwsllB@psu.edu with “Ask
ASCII:” in the subject line.
College costs continue to rise
By Gail Marksjarvis
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Even before Tasha Taylor completed her educa
tion at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., three
years ago, she was determined to be a social
worker.
She had watched her mother heroically raise six
children after losing a business in her 40s, and Tay
lor wanted to help welfare recipients rebuild their
lives the way her mother had.
Now, immersed in that work, she has no regrets
and no plan to change professions. But the pres
sures of massive college debt are weighing heavily
on her.
At 26, she has $50,000 in college loans hanging
over her future; about a quarter of the cost of a
starter home. And she worries about it every day.
At $l5 an hour, her pay doesn't stretch far
enough each month to provide for her daughter and
pay $555 in health insurance, $6OO for a "hole-in
the-wall" apartment and about $5OO for student
loans. Taylor eased the pressure recently by shar
ing an apartment with her boyfriend and refinanc
ing the loans so she pays only $2OO a month. But
to get the payments down, she had to extend them
for 25 years.
That means paying thousands more in interest,
and the loans will nag at her decision-making un
til she's 51.
Taylor is a member of what has been dubbed
"Generation Broke." These are young Americans
starting their lives deeply in the red because of stu
dent loans and credit card debt accumulated in col
lege. With a tight job market since the 2001 reces
sion, they struggle with stagnant pay, temporary
jobs and an unemployment rate that has recently
been higher for college graduates than for high
school dropouts.
As a result, it's common for young Americans
like Taylor to wrestle with career ideals that don't
mesh with their financial burdens.
"One in five significantly changed their career
plans because of student loans, nearly 40 percent
delayed buying a home, and 20 percent reported
their debt burden caused them to postpone having
children," says researcher Tamara Draut, who con
ducted a study of 18 to 34-year-olds for Demos
USA, a New York think tank.
The average person leaving college now has
$18,900 in student loans, compared with $9,000
for 1992 graduates. In addition, they have $3,262
in credit card debt, a 134 percent increase since
the mid-'9os.
College costs rose 35 percent over the past de
cade, and requests for federal loans went up 56
percent. Without enough low-interest college loan
money to cover overall costs, students borrow
money from private lenders at higher interest rates
About a quarter of students even use credit cards
to cover some college expenses, according to the
College Board, a much more expensive and vola
tile way to finance college. After college, Draut
says graduates manage to make minimum pay
ments on credit cards but are so strapped they take
on more debt.
The result: The average college graduate has a
starting salary of $36,000, or $2,058 a month. Once
they have paid $307 toward their student loans and
credit cards, plus covered rent, utilities, food and
transportation, only $34 is left over for child care,
entertainment, clothing, furniture or emergency ex
penses, says Draut.
The generation is "slipping into a downward debt
spiral that is unmatched in modem history," she
says. "Young adults starting off in the red will find
that it impacts their financial security for years to
come."
(KRT)
The Behrend Beacon | 7
Maggie Bolton-Henly of St. Paul already wor
ries about getting sucked into the spiral, even
though she hasn't completed her final year at
Willamette University in Oregon.
With $20,000 in college loans, "I do know that
once I graduate, money will be a main factor in
choosing a job because I do have so many loans to
pay back, " she says.
She's worried she will end up like a number of
people she sees "who are completely unhappy in
their jobs and not passionate about what they are
doing but feel trapped because they have bills and
loans to pay."
She is flirting with becoming a lawyer, not out
of a deep passion for the profession but because
she thinks it would assure her high pay and the
ability to retire loans.
Yet, going to law school would probably triple
her debts initially, and raises the question: How
much student debt is too much?
It's a question students should consider as they
select colleges and careers, says Sandy Baum, an
analyst for the College Board and a Skidmore Col
lege economist.
College itself is a proven and worthy investment,
but students who take on total debt that will ex
ceed their annual pay may be stretching too far,
she says.
Over their working lives, the typical college
graduate earns about 73 percent more than the typi
cal high school graduate, and those with advanced
degrees earn two to three times as much as high
school graduates, according to the College Board,
which studies trends in education finance. Earn
ings are greater for people from all ethnic back
grounds.
And despite the burden of debt, the College
Board says the typical graduate, who started col
lege at 18, has earned enough by age 33 to com
pensate for both tuition and fees at the average
public four-year institution. At private colleges, the
age is 40.
As high school seniors eye college choices this
time of year, Baum says they should try to com
pare their likely college debts with their likely sal
ary.
There's a rule of thumb to have loan payments
no larger than 8 percent of your expected income,
she says. But that's not a hard and fast rule. While
even 8 percent may be difficult to bear if someone
is making only $20,000 a year, a person with a
$60,000 income could devote more than 8 percent,
she says.
To consider debt levels with salaries, check
www.themint.org. Click on "earning" and "careers"
and "starting salaries. "Parents also must be care
ful about taking on too much debt.
Too many endanger their retirements by spend
ing too generously or taking on loans themselves
to finance college, says financial aid consultant
Ray Loewe of College Money in Marlton, N.J.
He notes that students have a lifetime of earn
ings to pay off college loans, but if parents have
extended themselves too far, no one is going to
give them a loan at age 75 to provide money for
groceries.
Consequently, he suggests that before agreeing
to pay for expensive colleges, parents calculate
first how they are doing in saving for retirement.
If they are on target to have 75 percent of their
income for each year of retirement, he says, par
ents can feel relatively secure about paying for
college. But most parents are far behind with sav
ing.
The average person within 15 years of retire
ment has saved only $55,000.
To judge how well prepared you are with retire
ment saving, try the calculators at
www.choosetosave.com.