Hello folks,
Spent some time searching this sub-forum before asking and see that most requests such as these are met with a healthy degree of skepticism regarding trying to fool copy protection and what not; that's not the case here. However seems that all of those threads are quite old... so new thread time!
This is a 100% honest, no kidding request to neuter some rather expensive drives into CD/DVD/BR ROMS. :eek:
I work in the semiconductor industry and we are getting a lot of pressure to disable ALL BURN FEATURES on our systems BluRay burners due to customer security concerns. And I do mean everything: CD, DVD and BR. It's irritating... but the customer is the customer!
Before someone states the inevitable, these are slim-line drives, so the market is extremely limited. Additionally we only buy devices with multi-year road maps; so just buying whatever is available at NewEgg / Fry's isn't an option. 
The two drives in question are a Sony / Optiarc BD-5850H, which went EOL and has since been replaced with a Teac BD-W26SS-B. I've contacted Sony & Teac directly... but am reaching out to the community too. 
Right up front - I know absolutely nothing about modifying firmwares! But would it be possible to dump the FW from the drives, modify them accordingly and flash as/when needed?
Thank you! 
Jason