@Zwelgje: You can clear region code just by pressing a series of buttons? No region-free software or messing with BIOS required? Sounds too easy.
@hbdragon88: See the thing is, it's not really for my personal entertainment but to use in an academic capacity; I can get European documentaries on DVD that, unlike enterainment-based European material, are not available in North America (i.e. they are not sold here because it just wouldn't be profitable).
So, I could do as you say and get myself a region-less DVD player and use that in-class, but I don't like the idea of using the originals or running the risk of the machine frying for some reason, thus leaving me with no way of playing the European DVDs--this is material for an entire course so that's a situation I really would like to avoid.
My problem is really with the European DVDs, not the North American DVD players.
The site Jeratain linked provides means of making you DVD player region-free (using DVD Genie for instance). [The site may include DVD software tools but I haven't had time to look through the entire site.]
Ideally, what I need is this:
1. A means of copying data from European DVDs using a North American DVD burner. (I assume that since it can't read the data, it can't copy it to your hard-drive either.)
2. A means of removing the region protection from the copy so that it can play on any DVD player (i.e. remove/change the protection data of the DVD software).