Is it possible to control the path etched by the laser and the speed of the motor through python? I'm trying to not use a microcontroller or disassemble the drive. I'm essentially trying to do LightScribe on the bottom of a DVD without LightScribe. It's a long story.
Long story short, anything is possible when it comes to computers. Long story, unless you can find someone who has developed the code to interface with the drivers specific to the computer and such than it would take a lot of work to do. If I understand what you want to do it would likely end up becoming a whole program, which is what you might want to look for.
If you are having a lot of issues with LightScribe (which appears to have a free version) consider running a VM and installing it on there as it may be potentially more stable or simply use another computer.
Controlling DVD Drive using Python