Ben Griffiths wrote to the Open Rights Group discussion mailing list a few weeks ago:

I want to share a DRM story.

I was in Curry’s in Plymouth a couple of weeks ago. A man was arguing loudly with one of the staff, his ten-year old daughter in tears at his side. From what I could gather, she had saved up her pocket money to buy an iTunes gift card – the songs she’d spent her money on, of course, didn’t work on her mp3 player.
The man wanted a refund for what seemed to him a defective product; the staff member said that if the card had been used they couldn’t give a refund.
The young girl cried and cried and cried.

The altercation went on for at least 15 minutes – the store manager eventually having to call some security chaps to remove him, but not before phoning the police.

So, whose fault was this?

Currys for selling a card without making it clear that some songs downloaded from iTunes wouldn’t work on some (!) mp3 players?
The girl for not understanding the complicated world of DRM?
iTunes for selling DRM music?
The record company for not selling DRM-free music?
The government for not requiring labelling of DRM-crippled products?

Who knows – I’m pretty sure the only person clearly free of blame was
the little girl.

But, perhaps that’s the wrong question – the end result was a stand- p shouting match, someone manhandled out of a store, a staff-member threatened and frightened, and a little girl in tears having spent her pocket money on something that didn’t work.

I thought it was worth sharing this since sometimes we can get bound up thinking about piracy and digital distribution and so on, but these small stories are often missed.

Ben

I found this very moving and touching.
This is obviously something that could happen to many people we know.
Do you know someone who is just making their first tentative steps on the computer? Yes that’s the person it’s going to catch out.

Someone buys an eeePC. They phones up Xandros and yells at the support guy for 4OD not working… or just takes it back to Currys….