Re: is this like a peering war somehow?

This is the USA. They will be sued no matter what they do. They will be sued even if they do nothing. The use of the ambigious pronoun is deliberate. They are both big enough (both goliths, no davids) that attorneys will target them both for real and imagined vices. Peering battles are a good thing, if annoying. Sometimes you can't watch your favorite television station on your cable system, sometimes you can't reach your favorite web site through your ISP. If you hide the pain, you also hide the pressure to fix it. For those unfamilar with history, insert Benjamin Franklin quote, I would suggest reading the FCC Walker Report (1938) and the AT&T Kingsbury Commitment (1913).