Bizarro World

In what universe is the following okay? (from The Ethicist column)

My friend Natalie had a small party, to which another friend brought a movie on his portable hard drive for all to watch. When Natalie got up to get a sweater, she tripped over the cord, killing the hard drive. She offered our friend $300 to replace it, but he demanded $1,800 to cover data retrieval too: the drive contained his digital artwork, not backed up. Who owes what?

So much to unpack... but all so unsavory.

1. you don't have parties where it's okay to bring laptops
   
2. you don't have parties where it's okay to bust open laptops
   
3. you don't have parties where it's okay to huddle around a laptop to watch a movie
   
4. you don't become friends with dbags (that covers the last 3 points I was going to make)