fair use

American  

[fair yoos] / ˈfɛər ˈjus /

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   The artist's biographer claimed fair use of quotes from unpublished personal letters.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

The results of two cases suggested that training AI on copyright material might be fair use in some circumstances, in large part because it is considered transformational.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

For their part, AI firms often argue their work is covered by the American copyright loophole of "fair use", which does not require rightsholders' consent.

From Barron's • Oct. 30, 2025

However, there are certain indications from the rulings in last week’s Anthropic and Meta cases that offer us a hint as to where the judicial system may ultimately land on the fair use issue.

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

In that case, remember, the Supreme Court had said that copying TV shows in order to time-shift was fair use.

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