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.
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.
-
Political cartoons for November 8Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include narco boats, and the new Lincoln monument
-
Why Trump pardoned crypto criminal Changpeng ZhaoIn the Spotlight Binance founder’s tactical pardon shows recklessness is rewarded by the Trump White House
-
Codeword: November 8, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Has Zohran Mamdani shown the Democrats how to win again?Today’s Big Question New York City mayoral election touted as victory for left-wing populists but moderate centrist wins elsewhere present more complex path for Democratic Party
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
