Remember when I commented that I expected to hear from Markey on the SoundExchange-Webcaster royalty negotiations? Well, he doesn't appear to be issuing official statements right now, but the two senators who introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act have had some words on the matter.

Specifically, Senators Brownback and Wyden said

[W]e will not allow the minimum fee issue to be used to force an agreement that mandates DRM technology and fails to respect the established principles of fair use and consumer rights.

In particular, WIRED's Eliot Van Buskirk is reporting that Brownback and Wyden's bill is effectively dead in the House. Even if it passed the Senate, the lack of companion House support would make the issue moot. This means SoundExchange is effectively free to do as it pleases, which may be why negotiations are dragging on. There's no incentive to settle, nor to give up the prize of killing off small independent Web radio, which has this annoying habit of playing non-Cartel music on over half its streams (see Eric Bangeman's piece last month on ars technica reporting on data from Live365).