Speaking of which my latest Sony DVD writer has a region setting which can be reprogrammed 5 times. After which it will stay stuck on the 5th. Now u have the possibilty of bricking your hardware (particularly with closed drivers) or purchasing your content from the last region.

Is it a hardware level lock? This REALLY stinks. i had faced a similar problem with an Apple iBook G3 but fortunately the lock was only at the software level. Using another ``software" sorted it out ;-)

i had heard about a hardware level hack for DVD players, i.e your standard DVD player is set to a default region(normally the one in which the DVD was manufactured), apparently the guys to supplied the player told us about this AND about the hack(which was essentially doing some soldering on the DVD logic board), and boom i had a region free DVD player. i don't know if we will be so lucky with Blue Ray DVD's, but luckly the alternative HD DVD is a little less restrictive.

Regards,

- vihan