Panco:
The lock only means that you need to login to somewhere to download the FW. Under std wty MSM devices have one year SW entitlement, bug fixes only. So if your AP is less than one year old, you can login to My Networking portal, register the device and download current FW versions from there. After one year you need a contract, and will download the SW from SW support portal, not My Networking.
Note that if you're on controlled environment, the SW entitlement runs according to the controller warranty. Even if your AP is brand new but your controller two years old, the new AP doesn't validate your controller for a current FW version. Of course there are excetions but...
JesseR:
That's really not the way it sho9uld be happening. Please do contact your local HP. The only way things change is if you give feedback, and the best place to give feedback is the local office.