IT Litigation Attorney Frank Taney Quoted on Net Neutrality in BusinessNewsDaily Article

Francis X. Taney, Jr., a shareholder and chair of the Information Technology Litigation practice of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Philadelphia office, was quoted in an August 27, 2010, article published by BusinessNewsDaily. The article, titled "What Net Neutrality Means for Small Business," discussed net neutrality and how it may be negatively affected by a recent proposal made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

As explained in the article, "The Internet has leveled the playing field between big businesses and small. On the Internet, after all, nobody knows you’re just two men and a dog working out of your garage. Until now, net neutrality has ensured that as long as you could meet your customers' needs, no one could tell the difference between you and your behemoth competitors. … That could be about to change."

The article went on to explained that net neutrality "means that all content, users and devices will be treated the same by broadband carriers such as AT&T and Verizon." However, as noted, "the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the traffic cop of all communications, this summer introduced a proposal to reclassify the transmission of data as a telecommunications service that the agency could directly regulate like it did in the days of Ma Bell. … Though the courts originally rebuffed the FCC in this quest, the agency is marshaling its resources for another attempt to codify and enforce its concept of net neutrality."

According to the article, "The carriers not unsurprisingly would like to be the masters of their own fate, with the freedom to set their own pricing and policies, especially in the exploding area of wireless broadband, which is expensive to roll out and particularly susceptible to overload by heavy users. One idea popular with carriers is providing expedited delivery to those willing to pony up higher transmission fees."

Taney weighed in on the situation saying that some measure of imposed net neutrality is inevitable and, on balance, a positive thing.

"Without net neutrality I'd be concerned there'd be a Balkanization of Internet services," he said. "People would discriminate against certain types of content and devices. The Internet is a tremendous engine of commerce and education. There's a magic there. The magic is that it's so democratic. Imposing net neutrality is not going to dissuade carriers from making the necessary investments."

He went on to say that ultimately the FCC will prevail.

"The FCC is all-in for net neutrality," he said. "The FCC is going to be successful."