Ted Cruz Sued for $2 Million for Lifting Songs for Campaign Ads

[Mechanicos]

Ted Cruz Sued for $2 Million for Lifting Songs for Campaign Ads

Audiosocket sued Ted Cruz in federal court Monday, charging that the former Republican presidential candidate and his campaign's Hollywood-based advertising firm used music that it owns for political purposes without permission.

According to GeekWire.com, the background music in the Cruz video titled "Victories" is from the recording "Lens" by Sarah Schachner. Likewise, the video "Best to Come," features music by Brad Couture called "Fear of Complacency."

Audiosocket charged that using the music, which was downloaded for Cruz by the advertising firm Madison McQueen, violated the company's contract restrictions.
 
"They got the wrong license, they put it on TV, they realized they shouldn't have put it on TV, they called asking for permission, we said no, they didn't come clean at that time and they kept broadcasting," Audiosocket's chief executive Brent McCrossen told GeekWire.com.

"That's why we took the approach we did, because the facts of the matter were so astonishing," McCrossen said, referring to Audiosocket's filing of a suit in a U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The lawsuit is seeking $2 million, according to The Seattle Times, charging $25,000 for each claimed breach of contract, plus damages. The Times reported that one of the ads aired on the Fox Business Channel 86 times. The "Best to Come" ad has been viewed on YouTube 12,000 times.
 
Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, suspended his campaign earlier this month after losing the Indiana Republican primary to GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, reported CNN. Earlier, he had named California businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his vice presidential running mate in hopes to give his campaign a boost.
 
Audiosocket has offices in Seattle and New Orleans. It has a roster of more than 50,000 pre-cleared original tracks, covering 204 genres, from 2,800 emerging bands and award-winning composers, wrote GeekWire.com.

http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/audiosocket-sues-ted-cruz/2016/05/12/id/728511/

May be time to dust off the old Canadian passport, eh.

 

[Fantom]

Really.. LOL, that is just sad.

How about Scam Wow ...trump has already paid millions for illegally hiring Illegals.  Has a RICO violation, and fraud suits against his  corrupt practices today.

An you post this....

[alicewonders]

 

[Right_in_Virginia]

 

[ABX]

This happens at almost every single campaign (Palin (Heart) and Trump (Neil Young, Rolling Stones) both also had issues). It usually comes simply from the confusion over licensing rights.  A marketing company may by rights from BMG, ASCAP, or Sony for example but then the artist or the artist's manager tries to also claim distribution rights and not wanting to be connected with a certain politician will either issue a cease and desist or actually sue like in this case. It may also be often the case that people at campaigns don't realize what is required to play a song publicly- some intern setting up an event thinks 'Barracuda' would be awesome because it is Palin's nickname or one thought 'Rockin the Free World' would be a great entrance for Trump, never realized that is technically a commercial use and thus they have to go to Sony, BMG, or another distribution platform.

The sad part is, getting licensing to use these songs in this manner is actually pretty cheap.