First of all, understand that Level 3 is a [kind of] ISP [a giant company with a massive infrastructure] just like Comcast. This isn't the Pirate Bay getting throttled down. This is an opposed giant company who plays the exact same kinds of games as Comcast and has the same savvy and the same ultimate incentives around getting its way.
Secondly, understand that ISPs [and other companies involved in internet infrastructure] craft agreements for using each other's pipes. Both companies own a ton of internet cable, and it helps both to share in order to serve their respective customers most efficiently.
This sharing is known as peering (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering) and it's common that companies have agreements about what is mutually agreeable.
Level 3 just signed an agreement with Netflix like two weeks ago to become a primary provider for their streaming service. This changes the balance of their peering agreement with Comcast substantially in terms of how much bandwidth is going to be passing through Comast's pipes on Level 3's behalf.
Comcast is allegedly seeking a "new fee," but this is equivocation from Level 3. They are seeking a new agreement that is the same kind of agreement they had before but with new terms to balance things back out. So there is a "new fee" but it's not shocking or innovative or abusive at all.
Basically, it used to be, "It helps us both equally to share these things under these terms," but the terms just changed big time.
Now Comcast says, "Hey, this isn't fair anymore. We need you to pay us a fee." It has nothing to do with the content of the packets or the source of the packets. It has to do with the volume of the traffic.
The amount of bandwidth they will be delivering over Comcast's pipes will be disproportionate to the bandwidth Comcast delivers through Level 3's pipes.
So that would mean... (the payoff)
If that interpretation is correct, then Level 3 is playing the internet like a violin. They are also disingenuously co-opting the net-neutrality movement and weakening the value of our anger by stoking it when Comcast isn't actually in the wrong for once.