Cute. I have the same problem on a Droid X running 2.3. And I have the "Auto Brightness" unchecked.
The lights will be on and then after a while they will go off with no change in the room darkness,
Exposing the phone to a light source, such as a desktop task light, and then moving the phone to a dark area will cause the lights to come on for a short while and then they go off again.
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