In the past couple of years the VLC player has been available, and it seems to be able to play any DVD without affecting the computer's DVD drive. There was a period when there was a new version of VLC which didn't work this way, but now it does again. So you might want to look into this (free) software option.

Now for the legal stuff:

The region-dedicated computer drive idea is the one endorsed in 2003 by the registrar of the Library of Congress in a memorandum addressing individuals who want to be able to play DVDs from another region. Her opinion then was that it might be illegal to use multi-region DVD players or altered DVD players. She was not addressing the language lab/library situation where one needs to be able to play any region without too much fuss. The question has not, I think, been addressed legally since then, and she pointed out that it's not even clear that region coding is protected by the Digital Millennium Act, as it is not mentioned specifically there.

Classroom support here took a stand long ago against making multi-regional players available (while the library and of course my language learning center have made them available). The policy in student computer labs except ours was to lock down the DVD drives to prevent students changing the region, since this could quickly disable the computer's ability to play Region 1.  Now, however, VLC player is available in all the classrooms and labs.

Judy Shoaf