F.B.T. Productions, LLC, et al. v. Aftermath Records, et al. 621 F.3d 958 was a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dealt with how Federal Copyright Law applied to the sales and licensing contracts of music downloads and other downloadable copyrighted material. Specifically, the circuit court ruled that a licensing provision in the contract between F.B.T. Productions and Aftermath Records unambiguously applied to permanent downloads and mastertones offered through third party distributors. After reviewing the First Sale Doctrine and the nature of Aftermath's contracts with its distributors, the circuit court concluded that such downloads constituted a licensing of copyrights rather than a sale, causing Aftermath to pay higher royalties to F.B.T. under their agreement. Overview In 1995 Plaintiff F.B.T. Productions, LLC ("FBT") signed fellow Plaintiff, rap artist Marshall Bruce Mathers III (stage name Eminem), to a recording contract. Subsequent contract agreements in 1998 and 2000 between Plaintiffs and Defendant Aftermath Records ("Aftermath"), a subsidiary of Interscope Records, UMG Recordings, Inc., and Ary, Inc., allowed Aftermath the right to distribute recordings of Eminem, and then ultimately transferred all exclusive rights of Eminem's recordings to Aftermath. In exchange for these rights, the agreements provided that Aftermath pay FBT royalties between 12% - 20% of the retail price of copies of Eminem's records sold ("Records Sold" provision). Furthermore, the agreements provided that FBT receive 50% of the net revenue Aftermath obtained by licensing out the use of Eminem's master recordings ("Masters Licensed" provision). Beginning in 2001, Defendants licensed various third parties the right to distribute over the Internet, recordings of Eminem in the form of music downloads and ringtones. These parties included, but were not limited to, the iTunes music store, Sprint, Nextel, Cingular, and T-Mobile. In 2005 auditors hired by Plaintiffs allegedly found that Defendants were remitting to Plaintiffs royalties for music downloads and ringtones under the lower percentage "Records Sold" provision of their agreement. Based on these findings, Plaintiffs filed complaints in 2007 and 2008, alleging breach of contract and motioned for summary judgment. Plaintiffs claimed that language in the record contracts stipulated that music downloads and ringtones be classified not as "Records Sold", but instead as the higher percentage "Masters Licensed", and that these higher royalties be remitted to FBT as such. District Court Ruling and Jury Trial United States District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez denied Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment on the