I believe I read somewhere that you can (can sometimes?) still make a drive region-free even if it's locked to a specific region.
Perhaps it's worth a go, even though I don't want to be held responsible if the drive ends up being a door-stop or something.
Loopyl00: Like Doctor X said earlier on it's up to someone to supply a new, region-free firmware for that particular drive. Without it there's nothing you can do, regardless of computer/operating system.
Ask around nicely in the firmware forums (I used to hang out in one ages ago when I updated my own firmware, but can't remember where -perhaps I posted about it earlier in this thread)... if someone can look into a region-free firmware for your particular drive. Until then, just be patient and don't change the region (just in case it's true that you can't update the firmware if the region is unchangeable).
