A small Austin start-up run by intelligence community alums is parachuting into the burgeoning, post-Napster, copy-protection market with a remarkably thin, invisible software product that claims to offer nearly invincible armor for music, video, film and e-books alike. But the most . . .
A small Austin start-up run by intelligence community alums is parachuting into the burgeoning, post-Napster, copy-protection market with a remarkably thin, invisible software product that claims to offer nearly invincible armor for music, video, film and e-books alike. But the most remarkable part is, it fights back at would-be pirates. "If you try to hack it, it destroys itself," explains company CEO George Friedman. Hasta la vista, John Perry Barlow! Friedman's company, Infraworks Corporation, has its roots in the military, where the operating motto certainly has never been "Information Wants to Be Free," but something along the lines of "Loose Lips Sink Ships." Infraworks is chaired by former Secretary of Defense and National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci, who also chairs The Carlyle Group merchant bank and Nortel Networks, the global communications firm. Friedman's own background is "in intelligence and computer security," he says. The author of books on business intelligence and the use of technology in warfare, Friedman currently chairs the business intelligence Web site Stratfor.com (intelligence-speak for strategic forecasting).