dvd area restriction

[philipp schmidt]

Attempting to play a first DVD on my new PB, I was shocked this weekend 
to see a drive-specific region restriction (which could only be changed 
5 times).  I live in South Africa, travel extensively throughout Europe 
and Africa and visit the US frequently.  I usually buy DVDs in airports 
to avoid the gruesome collection of in-flight movies and never had any 
problems playing them back on my Linux box.

Questions:

[1] Is there a way to disable the region restriction? Or use a software 
application that ignores it?

[2] Is it legal (or if not legal, enforceable) for a South African 
resident to do so? I believe we have no DCMA-like legislature in effect 
here yet ...

Thanks.

Philipp