fair use

American  

[fair yoos] / ˈfɛər ˈyus /

noun

1. reasonable and limited use of copyrighted material so as not to infringe upon copyright.

   The artist's biographer claimed fair use of quotes from unpublished personal letters.

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Etymology

Origin of fair use

First recorded in 1840–45

Example Sentences

Suno claims it trained its model based on the doctrine of fair use.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026

AI music generation platforms -- such as US based Suno and Udio -- argue their work is covered by the American copyright loophole of "fair use," which does not require rights holders' consent.

From Barron's • Mar. 18, 2026

Anthropic’s counter was that all of its practices—from the training itself to the utilization of books its engineers had alternatively pirated and purchased for Claude training—constituted an instance of fair use and were perfectly legal.

From Slate • Jun. 30, 2025

Alsup ruled that using copyrighted works to train bots such as Anthropic’s Claude is indeed fair use, and not a copyright breach.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 27, 2025

Ms. Spears' plot is cut through with rights to make fair use, as well as with limitations on ownership of standard themes.

From The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by Boyle, James