Computer rights activist and science fiction writer Cory Doctorow, security expert Bruce Schneier, and Yale law professor Yochai Benkler are the latest to be given Pioneer Awards by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The 16th annual awards were handed out last night at the Emerging Technology conference in San Diego.

These are the least techie set of awards in EFF history - early Pioneers tended to be people who had changed the world by inventing bits of technology, such as PGP author Phil Zimmermann, spread spectrum inventor (and movie star) Hedy Lamarr, Internet Protocol co-inventor Vinton Cerf, or public key cryptography inventors Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman.

Of this year's three, only Schneier has real tech cred; besides two seminal books on using cryptography he wrote the Blowfish algorithm. Benkler is best known for his 2006 book The Wealth of Networks that explains and ties together many technical and political trends. EFF Fellow Doctorow won for his work on copy protection which was carried out on behalf of EFF, which two years ago gave a gong to one of its own founders, Mitch Kapor. ®

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