fair use

noun

: a legal doctrine that portions of copyrighted materials may be used without permission of the copyright owner provided the use is fair and reasonable, does not substantially impair the value of the materials, and does not curtail the profits reasonably expected by the owner

Examples of fair use in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
This logic doesn’t pass the smell test for me, especially since the judge also said that downloading books from piracy sites is not fair use. James Folta, Literary Hub, 22 July 2025 The goal of fair use is to balance a system of incentives so that the kind of work our culture needs is rewarded. Alex Reisner, The Atlantic, 14 July 2025 Judge Alsup, sitting the Northern District Court of California, held that the use of the books for training purposes was a fair use, and that the conversion of any print books that Anthropic had purchased and converted to digital was also a fair use. Dale Nelson, Forbes.com, 2 July 2025 That could weigh against the fair use argument, as a judge opined in a recent ruling that evidence of market dilution could tip an AI copyright case in favor of plaintiffs. ArsTechnica, 2 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for fair use

Word History

First Known Use

1847, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fair use was in 1847

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Cite this Entry

“Fair use.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fair%20use. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.

Legal Definition

fair use

see use sense 2

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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