Travel Technology - DVD zones..limited changes allowed

Greetings from Europe. Just bought a DVD that is encoded for zone 2 (Germany), and I am getting a message from the DVD drive set up that I am only allowed to change the zone 3 more times before it locks permanently.

Wazzup with that...who the **** is telling me WHERE I can watch a DVD, where it can come from, etc....I OWN the computer, the drive, the movies....etc.....

Any way around this nonsense? What possible reason can there be for this?

Also, is there any indication on the DVD package or disc indicating which zone it is set for? I saw one today that said it was good across all 7 zones.... I only have the one German disc now (Caddyshack in German is quite good!), but if I have to contend with a fascistic zone control police, I'll refrain from getting anything but USA zoned materials (if I can figure out how) or how to defeat the zoning. Thanks!

[This message has been edited by rrz518 (edited 09-20-2003).]

Score another one for the entertainment industry.

There are firmware to make DVD drives region free, such as www.rpc1.org (http://www.rpc1.org)

good luck, your DVD will self destruct in 5 seconds...

You may own the disc but the movie studio will decide where you are allowed to watch it. Instead of flashing your drive (can go wrong) use a software package like DVD Region free (http://www.dvdidle.com/ ) which will automatically change the region without having to alter the drives region.

Everyone with a notebook should have THIS software to prevent you from having to change the firmware zones in the drive:

http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm