The year 2016 has not been an easy one for Ted Cruz — he lost the Republican primary, he accidentally elbowed his wife in the face multiple times on live television, his father was falsely linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and his old Princeton roommate spent weeks tweeting about how creepy he was in college. Cruz took another hit last week, when he settled a lawsuit for $55,000 that alleged his campaign played two copyrighted songs in political ads.
The Seattle music-licensing firm Audiosocket claimed that Cruz and an ad agency he hired, Madison McQueen, did not reveal that they planned to use the music of two artists for political advertisements. One of the ads ran on Fox Business News 86 times and was viewed on YouTube 7,800 times, the lawsuit stated. In addition to paying Audiosocket $55,000, Cruz's campaign released a statement saying it apologized for "unintentionally infringing upon the intellectual property rights" of the artists.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Judge: Trump's US attorney in NJ serving unlawfullySpeed Read The appointment of Trump's former personal defense lawyer, Alina Habba, as acting US attorney in New Jersey was ruled 'unlawful'
-
Third judge rejects DOJ's Epstein records requestSpeed Read Judge Richard Berman was the third and final federal judge to reject DOJ petitions to unseal Epstein-related grand jury material
-
Texas OKs gerrymander sought by TrumpSpeed Read The House approved a new congressional map aimed at flipping Democratic-held seats to Republican control
-
Israel starts Gaza assault, approves West Bank planSpeed Read Israel forces pushed into the outskirts of Gaza City and Netanyahu's government gave approval for a settlement to cut the occupied Palestinian territory in two
-
Court says labor board's structure unconstitutionalSpeed Read The ruling has broad implications for labor rights enforcement in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi
-
Feds seek harsh charges in DC arrests, except for riflesSpeed Read The DOJ said 465 arrests had been made in D.C. since Trump federalized law enforcement there two weeks ago
-
Trump taps Missouri AG to help lead FBISpeed Read Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has been appointed FBI co-deputy director, alongside Dan Bongino
-
Trump warms to Kyiv security deal in summitSpeed Read Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Trump's support for guaranteeing his country's security 'a major step forward'
