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

While the case settled, Fairey had insisted his artistic transformation of an Associated Press photograph constituted fair use. — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 6 Nov. 2026

The lawsuit is heading toward a trial, with OpenAI arguing that its use of news articles is fair use under copyright law. — Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica, 3 Nov. 2026

In short, the four unions are collectively making the case that fair use cannot be decided with blanket exemptions and must remain a case-by-case judgement call, so as to protect human workers from exploitation. — Katie Campione, Deadline, 29 Oct. 2026

Ethan then sued Denims for copyright infringement, which was ironic, as Ethan’s reaction videos set much of the precedent for what constitutes fair use on commentary YouTube. — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1847, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fair use

• abstruse
• abuse
• adduce
• atreus
• caboose
• cayuse
• conduce
• deduce
• diffuse
• disuse
• excuse
• footloose

Legal Definition

fair use

see also:

use sense 2