Emil Cadkin

The court also noted that its holding is consistent with every circuit court that has considered whether Buckhannon governs prevailing party status under the Copyright Act. See, e.g., Riviera Distribs., Inc. v. Jones, 517 F.3d 926 (7th Cir. 2008) (holding voluntary dismissal with prejudice of copyright claims confers prevailing party status on defendants under Buckhannon); Torres-Negron v. J & N Records, LLC, 504 F.3d 151 (1st Cir. 2007) (holding Buckhannon material alteration test applies to copyright claims and concluding dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction does not confer prevailing party status); see also Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. London Music, U.K., 226 F. App'x 491 (6th Cir. 2007) (unpublished) (applying Buckhannon to copyright claims).

After being discharged from the Air Force, he scored films like "The Big Fix" for bottom-of-the-barrel studio PRC. Cadkin was an associate editor of ASCAP's ‘The Score’ when it was created in 1948, and got a job in 1958 as musical director at Ritco Productions, a low-budget company that churned out westerns starring Forrest Tucker. Cadkin switched from ASCAP to BMI the following year. He graduated to become musical director and arranger for Columbia Pictures and Screen Gems. He also got into the business of supplying taped music programming for radio stations, as Billboard of May 23, 1970 reveals he had been appointed music director of popular products (as opposed to classical) for American Tape Duplicators. But he spent a decade writing his own music and co-writing music along with Bill Loose, which ended up in various libraries, including Capitol Hi-Q. Billboard of December 23, 1967 reveals distribution rights to that music, previously in the PMS, OK and PM libraries, which had belonged to Capitol, had been purchased by Emil Ascher, Inc.

From about 1959 until the 1970s, plaintiff Emil Cadkin wrote thousands of musical cues, solely and with William Loose. Licensing of the cues was administered by GRH Music, a partnership formed by Cadkin and Loose.

Emil Cadkin is widely credited with the idea for, and the creation of, the United States' first production music libraries (PMS, OK & PM) in the early 1950s.

The district court awarded attorney's fees and costs to defendants, and the Ninth Circuit reversed. Ninth Circuit precedent (Corcoran v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., 121 F.2d 575 (9th Cir. 1941)) held that a defendant could recover attorney's fees under Section 505 when a plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the action without prejudice. However, the court stated that the 1941 decision was no longer good law in light of the 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision Buckhannon Bd. & Care Home, Inc. v. W. Va. Dep't of Health & Human Res., 532 U.S. 598 (2001) which held in the context of the Fair Housing Amendments Act that prevailing party status turns on whether there has been a "material alteration of the legal relationship of the parties."

Emil Milton Cadkin (August 26, 1920 – December 16, 2020) was an American TV and film composer who worked mainly as a production music composer. He worked with William Loose (1910–1991) and Harry Bluestone (1907–1992). Some of his music was also featured on APM Music. Cadkin composed music for 1940s, 1950s and 1960s TV series, films and cartoons including Gumby and Hanna-Barbera's Augie Doggie.

He was born in August 1920 in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest of three children to Isadore and Sarah Cadkin, who had emigrated from the Russian Empire in 1905. His father was a cabinet maker in Los Angeles by 1936. Cadkin attended Yale University, where he majored in music, with special emphasis in Music Composition and Music Theory. He was in Los Angeles writing and teaching music by the time he enlisted in the Air Force in 1942. His song I Have Everything I Want But You was copyrighted in 1938.