Human rights seem to be in the news continuously. This book combines that topic with digital technology and thoughts on the Arab Spring (resistance and some form of liberation). One might expect a lively and perhaps contradictory read, but that is for another book. Instead, this book is intensely academic, is formalistic in phrasing, and uses grammar in a way that is not typical of a native English speaker, making it difficult to determine the intended audience.

Chapter 1, “Opening Remarks: Hacking and Digital Dissidence,” sets the academic and ruminative tone, along with five pages of references. “Digital Resistance, Digital Liberties and Digital Transparency” follows, and even as a political sympathizer, I found the discussion too ethereal and obtuse. Chapter 3 reviews “Hacking and Digital Dissidence Activities,” followed by a chapter on “Digital Resistance, Digital Liberties and Human Rights.” This all centers on documents from the Council of Europe, the Declaration of Principles from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a 2011 United Nations (UN) Report, and other documents created by nongovernmental organizations. Next, a brief chapter 5, “The Use of Liberation Technology,” is decidedly nontechnical, as is the tour of various countries around the world in chapter 6, “Digital Activism.” The final six pages (chapter 7) offer a fairly uninteresting conclusion on “The Landscape of Digital Liberties and the Future.”

Author Ziccardi teaches legal informatics at the University of Milan, and is founder and director of a postgraduate course in computer forensics and digital investigations. This might be why the text is heavy on legal references to obscure international treaties, treatises, and nongovernmental bodies. The references are very up to date. If such are of interest to you, or if you are a student of international law, this may be a title to read.