A Few Questions about Changing DVD Region

So, I guess all you really need to know is I have a Macbook Pro (late 2009). I'm not interested in changing the Region on my drive, just the DVD itself. I've done some reading on this in various places and this is what I've gathered so far:

If I buy a DVD with a different region, my Macbook should automatically prompt me that it's wrong and ask me if I want to change it, which I can do. There's a limit to 5 times I can change a disc and once that's up, the final change will be permanent.

Based on that, just have a few questions:

1. Is that all correct, or is there a program (preferably free) I'll have to download to do that?

2. This may be a stupid question. Once I change the region on the DVD, will it stay like that unless I change it again? For example, if I change it from region 2 to region 1, will it revert back to region 2 once it's out of my computer or will it stay on region 1?

3. If I change the region on here and it does indeed stick, should I be able to play it on all like-regioned players?

Thanks in advance!

The region does not change on the DVD itself, it changes in the firmware of your DVD optical drive. That's why you're limited to 5 changes and actually on change number 5 it becomes permanent.

Way back when... DVD drives had no region restrictions, however, with DRM and the various schemes of copy protection (Movie and Arts Industry) region settings have been added to the drive firmware.

So if you change the region setting to 2 from 1, it will stay on 2 until you change it again. And yes, all DVDs recorded for region 2 will play.