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.
The only caveat to this is that Starlink does say that some users may experience temporary speed reductions during peak usage times if their bandwidth consumption is unusually high, as part of Starlink's fair use policy. PC Magazine, 16 Apr. 2025 So the issues of intellectual property and fair use in AI go far beyond what we are used to dealing with in the legal world. John Werner, Forbes.com, 14 Apr. 2025 At issue here is whether fair use principles are broad enough to cover the wholesale consumption of massive datasets in AI training. Ina Fried, Axios, 20 Mar. 2025 Moreover, OpenAI faces multiple significant lawsuits, including from major publishers like The New York Times, highlighting ongoing contention around fair use applicability in the AI era. Virginie Berger, Forbes, 15 Mar. 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 24 Apr. 2025.

Legal Definition

fair use

see use sense 2

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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