Eject works only with root

Had a strange problem. Couldn't eject my Ipod. Got this error:

$ eject /mnt/ipod
$ eject: unable to open `/dev/ipod'

The same thing happened with my usb flash drive. I know, some people say that we don't have to eject a flash drive; umount will do. But ejecting a flash drive makes the LED light switch off. I like seeing that... hehe

Anyway, this has never happened before and I don't know why I suddenly cannot eject as a normal user. With root, I get this message:

$ eject -v /mnt/ipod
eject: device name is `/mnt/ipod'
eject: expanded name is `/mnt/ipod'
eject: `/mnt/ipod' is not mounted
eject: `/dev/ipod' can be mounted at `/mnt/ipod'
eject: `/dev/ipod' is not a multipartition device
eject: trying to eject `/dev/ipod' using CD-ROM eject command
eject: CD-ROM eject command failed
eject: trying to eject `/dev/ipod' using SCSI commands
eject: SCSI eject succeeded

I solved the problem temporarily by doing chmod +s /usr/bin/eject

I read this in this bug website:

That's an eject bug because it opens for read-only.

From "strace eject -s /dev/sdb1":
open("/dev/sdb1", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK) = 3

EDIT: I searched through my old posts, and found the post titled 'Ipod Works Under Gentoo' where I have already encountered this problem with eject! Why do I even note down these things if I'm not going to look through them first?!