We are a bookish crowd here at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Here we've listed the top 3 in each category are standouts or classics, but every book in the list has inspired fresher, smarter considerations about technology, civil liberties, and what it means to be on the electronic frontier. Every year we also compile a list of the best books on digital rights that were released in the past 12 months. Check out our list for 2013.

The links next to each book allow you to purchase copies through a bookseller-affiliate program — so a portion of the book's cost will go to EFF.

Categories:

Copyright, Trademark and Innovation

Privacy, Surveillance, and Security

Technology and Internet Culture

International Internet Issues

Economics and Business

History, Politics, and Electronic Voting

  • Jessica Litman, Digital CopyrightBuy it now:
  • James Boyle, The Public DomainBuy it now:
  • Cory Doctorow, Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the FutureBuy it now:
  • » More in Copyright, Trademark and Innovation
    • Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World
    • Tarleton Gillespie, Wired Shut
    • Suzanne Scotchmer, Innovation and Incentives
    • David Bollier, Brand Name Bullies
    • Corynne McSherry, Who Owns Academic Work?
    • William Fisher III, Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment
    • Eric von Hippel, Democratizing Innovation
    • Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism

Privacy, Surveillance, and Security

  • Daniel Solove, Understanding PrivacyBuy it now:
  • Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital AgeBuy it now:
  • Mark Klein, Wiring Up The Big Brother Machine...And Fighting ItBuy it now:
  • » More in Privacy, Surveillance, and Security

Trevor Paglen, Blank Spots On The Map

James Bamford, The Shadow Factory

James Bamford, Body of Secrets

James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace

Bruce Schneier, Beyond Fear

Bruce Schneier, Schneier on Security

Robert O'Harrow, No Place to Hide

Patrick Radden Keefe, Chatter: Uncovering the Echelon Surveillance Network and the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping

Daniel Solove, The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age

Simson Garfinkel, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century

Whitfield Diffie & Susan Landau, Privacy on The Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption, Updated & Expanded Edition

Greg Conti, Googling Security: How Much Does Google Know About You?

Katherine Albrecht, Spychips

Christopher Slobogin, Privacy at Risk: The New Government Surveillance and The Fourth Amendment

Technology and Internet Culture

  • Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop ItBuy it now:
  • Lawrence Lessig, Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace (1.0 and 2.0)Buy it now:
  • Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic FrontierBuy it now:
  • » More in Technology and Internet Culture
    • James Boyle, Shamans, Software, & Spleens

    International Internet Issues

    • Goldsmith & Wu, Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless WorldBuy it now:
    • Ronald Delbert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski and Jonathan Zittrain (eds), Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet FilteringBuy it now:
    • Susan Sell, Private Power, Public LawBuy it now:
    • » More in International Internet Issues

    • Susan Sell, Power and Ideas

      Keith Maskus and Jerome Reichman (eds), International Public Goods and Transfer of Technology Under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime

    Economics and Business

    • Lawrence Lessig, RemixBuy it now:
    • Clayton Christensen, The Innovator's DilemmaBuy it now:
    • Chris Anderson, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of MoreBuy it now:
    • » More in Economics and Business
      • James Lardner, Fast Forward  
      • Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks  
      • Joel Mokyr, The Gifts of Athena  
      • Loet Leydersdorff, The Knowledge-Based Economy  
      • David Bollier, Silent Theft

      History, Politics, and Electronic Voting

      • Eric Lichtblau, Bush's Law: The Remaking of American JusticeBuy it now:
      • Alasdair Roberts, Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information AgeBuy it now:
      • Aviel Rubin, Brave New BallotBuy it now:
      • » More in History, Politics, and Electronic Voting
        • Barton Gellman, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency  
        • James Risen, State of War  
        • Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison  
        • Opsahl, Wong & Silvers, Electronic Media and Privacy Law Handbook  
        • Robert Ellis Smith, Ben Franklin's Web Site: Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet  
        • Paul Virilio, The Information Bomb  
        • Marjorie Williams, Reputation