You can very easily add support for your own third party CD/DVD burner in Panther by creating a file in ~/Library -> DiscRecording -> DeviceProfiles/. With that file, System Profiler will display "Disc Burning: DRDeviceSupportLevelUnsupported" and Disc Copy will let you use your burner. Here is the SM348B.drprofile I made for my combo drive:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
<dict>
<key>DRDevicePersonalities</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>DRDeviceProductName</key>
<string>CDRW/DVD SM-348B</string>
<key>DRDeviceVendorName</key>
<string>SAMSUNG</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>DRDeviceProfile</key>
<dict>
<key>DRDeviceDescription</key>
<string>16x48x24x48 Combo</string>
</dict>
<key>DRDeviceProfileVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</array>
</plist>
[robg adds: I haven't tested this, but if it works, I think a lot of folks will be quite happy!]
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2003102506540587