Trump Fires Copyright Office Head Following Controversial AI Training Report

Copyright Office head fired after reporting AI training isn't always fair use

A day after the US Copyright Office dropped a bombshell pre-publication report challenging artificial intelligence firms' argument that all AI training should be considered fair use, the Trump administration fired the head of the Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter -- sparking speculation that the controversial report hastened her removal. Tensions have apparently only escalated since. Now, as industry advocates decry the report as overstepping the office's authority, social media posts on Monday described an apparent standoff at the Copyright Office between Capitol Police and men rumored to be with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). A source familiar with the matter told Wired that the men were actually "Brian Nieves, who claimed he was the new deputy librarian, and Paul Perkins, who said he was the new acting director of the Copyright Office, as well as acting Registrar," but it remains "unclear whether the men accurately identified themselves." A spokesperson for the Capitol Police told Wired that no one was escorted off the premises or denied entry to the office. Perlmutter's firing followed Donald Trump's removal of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who, NPR noted, was the first African American to hold the post. Responding to public backlash, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that the firing was due to "quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children." The Library of Congress houses the Copyright Office, and critics suggested Trump's firings were unacceptable intrusions into cultural institutions that are supposed to operate independently of the executive branch. In a statement, Rep. Joe Morelle (D.-N.Y.) condemned Perlmutter's removal as "a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis."

Trump fires Copyright Office director after report raises questions about AI training | TechCrunch

President Donald Trump has fired Shira Perlmutter, who leads the U.S. Copyright Office. The firing was reported by CBS News and Politico, and seemingly confirmed by a statement from Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee for House Administration. "Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," Morelle said. "It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models." Perlmutter took over the Copyright Office in 2020, during the first Trump administration. She was appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who Trump also fired this week. Trump alluded to the news on his social network Truth Social, when he "ReTruthed" a post from attorney Mike Davis linking to the CBS News article. (Confusingly, Davis seemed to criticize the firing, writing, "Now tech bros are going to attempt to steal creators' copyrights for AI profits.") As for how this ties into Musk (a Trump ally) and AI, Morelle linked to a pre-publication version of a U.S. Copyright Office report released this week that focuses on copyright and artificial intelligence. (In fact, it's actually part three of a longer report.) In it, the Copyright Office says that while it's "not possible to prejudge" the outcome of individual cases, there are limitations on how much AI companies can count on "fair use" as a defense when they train their models on copyrighted content. For example, the report says research and analysis would probably be allowed. "But making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries," it continues. The Copyright Office goes on to suggest that government intervention "would be premature at this time," but it expresses hope that "licensing markets" where AI companies pay copyright holders for access to their content "should continue to develop," adding that "alternative approaches such as extended collective licensing should be considered to address any market failure." AI companies including OpenAI currently face a number of lawsuits accusing them of copyright infringement, and OpenAI has also called for the U.S. government to codify a copyright strategy that gives AI companies leeway through fair use. Musk, meanwhile, is both a co-founder of OpenAI and of a competing startup, xAI (which is merging with the former Twitter). He recently expressed support for Square founder Jack Dorsey's call to "delete all IP law."

Two Men Claiming to Be Trump Appointees Blocked From Entering US Copyright Office

The men appeared at the US Copyright Office days after after the Trump administration fired its leader, who had just published a report about the use of copyrighted materials for AI training. Two men claiming to be newly appointed Trump administration officials tried to enter the US Copyright Office in Washington, DC on Monday, but left before gaining access to the building, sources tell WIRED. Their appearance comes days after the White House fired the director of the copyright office, Shira Perlmutter, who had held the job since 2020. Perlmutter was removed from her post on Saturday, one day after the agency released a report that raised concerns about the legality in certain cases of using copyrighted materials to train artificial intelligence. A source familiar with the matter tells WIRED that the two men who tried to enter the Copyright Office showed security at the building a document stating that they had been appointed by the White House to new roles within the office. The source identified the men as Brian Nieves, who claimed he was the new deputy librarian, and Paul Perkins, who said he was the new acting director of the Copyright Office, as well as acting Registrar. It is unclear whether the men accurately identified themselves. There is an official with the name Brian Nieves currently employed as deputy chief of staff at the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, and a Paul Perkins is currently employed as an associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The Department of Justice and the White House did not immediately respond to questions from WIRED about whether the two officials had been appointed to work in the Copyright Office. Sources told WIRED that Capitol Police prevented the men from entering the copyright office, but a spokesperson for the law enforcement agency denied that officers escorted anyone out or denied them entry. The US Copyright Office is a government agency within the Library of Congress that administers the nation's copyright laws. It processes applications to copyright creative works and maintains a searchable database of existing registrations. Last week, the Trump administration also fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who was the first woman and the first Black person to hold the position. The document the two men cited also stated that deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who previously served as a personal defense lawyer for Trump, was now the acting Librarian of Congress. The Department of Justice announced Monday that Blanche would be replacing Hayden, who had been in the job for nearly a decade. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Hayden's firing stemmed from "quite concerning things she had done at the Library of Congress in pursuit of DEI." The Trump Administration has not commented so far on why Perlmutter was fired. Some lawmakers have speculated that her ouster is connected to the report on copyright and AI that her office had released. "Donald Trump's termination of the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the Library of Congress, said in a statement on Saturday. "It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models."

Trump fires head of Copyright Office two days following report that AI training may not be fair use

But making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries. University of Colorado law professor Blake Reid called the report a "straight-ticket loss for the AI companies" in a post prior to reports emerged that Perlmutter had been fired, writing that he wondered "if a purge at the Copyright Office is incoming and they felt the need to rush this out." Reid wrote that although the Copyright Office generally can't "issue binding interpretations of copyright law," courts turn to its expertise when drafting their opinions.

Copyright Office thinks AI companies sometimes stole content

Some see an action to benefit Elon. The White House sees an agency obsessed with DEI The head of the US Copyright Office has reportedly been fired, the day after agency concluded that builders of AI models use of copyrighted material went beyond existing doctrines of fair use. The office's opinion on fair use came in a draft of the third part of its report on copyright and artificial intelligence. The first part considered digital replicas and the second tackled whether it is possible to copyright the output of generative AI. The office published the draft [PDF] of Part 3, which addresses the use of copyrighted works in the development of generative AI systems, on May 9th. The draft notes that generative AI systems "draw on massive troves of data, including copyrighted works" and asks: "Do any of the acts involved require the copyright owners' consent or compensation?" That question is the subject of several lawsuits, because developers of AI models have admitted to training their products on content scraped from the internet and other sources without compensating content creators or copyright owners. AI companies have argued fair use provisions of copyright law mean they did no wrong. As the report notes, one test courts use to determine fair use considers "the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work". If a judge finds an AI company's use of copyrighted material doesn't impact a market or value, fair use will apply. The report finds AI companies can't sustain a fair use defense in the following circumstances: The office will soon publish a final version of Part 3 that it expects will emerge "without any substantive changes expected in the analysis or conclusions." Tech law professor Blake. E Reid described the report as "very bad news for the AI companies in litigation" and "A straight-ticket loss for the AI companies". Among the AI companies currently in litigation on copyright matters are Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft. All four made donations to Donald Trump's inauguration fund. Reid's post also pondered the timing of the Part 3 report - despite the office saying it was released "in response to congressional inquiries and expressions of interest from stakeholders" - and wrote "I continue to wonder (speculatively!) if a purge at the Copyright Office is incoming and they felt the need to rush this out." Reid looks prescient as the Trump administration reportedly fired the head of the Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, on Saturday. Representative Joe Morelle (D-NY), wrote the termination was "...surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models." Morelle linked the words "she refused to rubber-stamp" to the Part 3 report discussed above. The remarks about Musk may refer to the billionaire's recent endorsement of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's desire to "Delete all IP law", or the Tesla and SpaceX boss's plans to train his own "Grok" AI on X users' posts. There's another possible explanation for Perlmutter's ousting: The Copyright Office is a department of the Library of Congress, whose leader was last week fired on grounds of "quite concerning things that she had done ... in the pursuit of DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] and putting inappropriate books in the library for children," according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. So maybe this is just the Trump administration enacting its policy on diversity without regard to the report's possible impact on donors or Elon Musk. ®

Trump fires head of U.S. Copyright Office

May 12 (Reuters) - The Trump administration fired the top U.S. copyright official in an email from the White House on Saturday, a U.S. Copyright Office spokesperson confirmed. The firing of Copyright Office director Shira Perlmutter follows President Donald Trump's termination of U.S. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Friday. The Copyright Office is a department of the Library of Congress. Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Perlmutter's firing on Monday. Democratic U.S. Senators Adam Schiff of California and Chuck Schumer of New York called Perlmutter's firing unlawful in a joint statement and said that Congress "purposefully insulated this role and the U.S. Copyright Office from politics." The Copyright Office under Perlmutter released a report, opens new tab late on May 9 advising that technology companies' use of vast amounts of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems which "produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets" may not be protected by U.S. copyright law. Tech companies including OpenAI and Meta Platforms have told the office that being forced to pay copyright holders for their content could cripple the burgeoning U.S. AI industry. Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Morelle of New York said in a statement that it was "surely no coincidence" that Perlmutter was fired "less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models." Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has reportedly used AI in its efforts to reduce the size of the federal government, also owns artificial intelligence company xAI. Musk and spokespeople for DOGE and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Perlmutter's firing. Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Government Blake Brittain Thomson Reuters Blake Brittain reports on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, for Reuters Legal. He has previously written for Bloomberg Law and Thomson Reuters Practical Law and practiced as an attorney.

Trump has fired the director of the US Copyright Office

It comes after the office released a report on the issues of copyright in AI training. As first reported by , the Trump administration has fired the Register of Copyrights and US Copyright Office Director, Shira Perlmutter. The Register of Copyrights works under the Librarian of Congress -- a title held most recently by Carla Hayden, who was fired earlier this week for her DEI efforts, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told . Perlmutter's dismissal comes just after the office released a that raised concerns about certain uses of copyrighted material to train generative AI. It's the third in published over the last year analyzing copyright law as it pertains to AI. The Trump administration -- particularly -- has been pushing for broader use of AI. In April, to develop AI strategies and name Chief AI Officers that will "serve as change agents and AI advocates." In a statement released after news of Perlmutter's firing came to light, Congressman Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee on House Administration, called the move "a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," saying, "It is surely no coincidence [Donald Trump] acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models."

Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration has fired the nation's top copyright official , Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office. The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that "your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately." On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration's ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter's office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to "train" their AI systems. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. "Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," Perlmutter said in January. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright." The White House didn't return a message seeking comment Sunday. Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter's firing. "Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously also worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday. __ Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.

Trump Reportedly Fires Head of US Copyright Office

Shira Perlmutter recently expressed concern over the use of copyrighted material by AI firms. Earlier this week, the US Copyright Office issued a massive report in part expressing support for content creators and raising concerns about how artificial intelligence systems utilize copyrighted material in training. On Saturday, the head of that office, Shira Perlmutter, was fired by Donald Trump, according to CBS News. The firing also followed Trump's axing of Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress, of which the US Copyright Office is one department. Perlmutter had served as the Register of Copyrights since October, 2020, during the first Trump administration. She had been appointed to the role by Hayden, who was appointed librarian of Congress during Barack Obama's first term and served through the first Trump presidency without disruption. Hayden, who made significant efforts to modernize and optimize the library's systems during her tenure, was fired without explanation earlier this week. Hayden's firing came shortly after the American Accountability Foundation, a right-wing "government oversight" organization, took aim at Hayden for denouncing efforts to remove books about sexual identity from libraries and for inviting Lizzo to play former President James Madison's crystal flute at a concert in 2022. Perlmutter also faced scrutiny from this group, taking issue with the fact that she had made donations to Democratic political campaigns. The AAF also apparently took issue with the fact that she supported a "three strikes" rule for individuals downloading copyrighted material on the Internet. It's hard to see any other inciting incident other than the AAF's recent campaign against Hayden and Perlmutter as the impetus for Trump taking action, but the timing is certainly open to question given the Copyright Office's recent report examining how generative AI models utilize copyrighted works within their training data and the potential harms that may cause to artists, creators, and copyright holders. To that end, Democratic Congressperson Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration, took issue with Perlmutter's firing and called into question the motivations behind it. "Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," he said in a statement. "It's surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models." Musk recently endorsed the idea of removing all intellectual property laws, an idea that has growing support among tech CEOs who would like to mine and utilize as much data as humanly possible in order to train their AI models. Deleting those laws off the books seems like the quickest way for these companies to access the data they want, as it seems the "fair use" argument for using copyrighted material as training data may fall flat. Fittingly, one of the major conclusions of the report from Perlmutter's office was that the use of copyrighted works to train commercial services "goes beyond established fair use boundaries."

White House fires head of Copyright Office amid Library of Congress shakeup

Shira Perlmutter's termination comes after her office this month released a report that raised concerns about using copyrighted materials to train AI. The White House fired the head of the U.S. Copyright Office on Saturday, according to an email acting librarian of Congress Robert Newlen sent to his staff. Shira Perlmutter, the register of copyrights and director of the Copyright Office, was terminated by email, Newlen said in his brief message to employees, according to a copy The Washington Post reviewed. The news came two days after President Donald Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who appointed Perlmutter in October 2020. Perlmutter declined to comment on her termination, which was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Copyright Office. The White House did not respond to requests for comment Sunday. In the hours since the termination announcement, Library of Congress employees have shared fears that anyone could lose their job next, said an employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. This month, Perlmutter's office released a more than 100-page report on artificial intelligence that raised concerns about using copyrighted materials to train AI systems, which some employees suspected may have influenced Perlmutter's termination. "Several stages in the development of generative AI involve using copyrighted works in ways that implicate the owners' exclusive rights," the report said. "The key question, as most commenters agreed, is whether those acts of prima facie infringement can be excused as fair use." The report stopped short of urging government intervention for now. Under the second Trump administration, Musk's brainchild, the U.S. DOGE Service, which is charged with reducing federal spending and the workforce, has sought to use AI to fuel sweeping changes to government. DOGE is working to combine federal data into one database that could be searchable, including by AI tools, which might speed the process of identifying programs to cut, The Post reported. Musk, who owns artificial intelligence firm xAI, wrote "I agree" last month in response to a post on X that said "delete all IP law," referring to intellectual property. The Copyright Office reviews hundreds of thousands of applications annually, advises Congress on intellectual property issues and sets regulations. Musk did not respond to a request for comment Sunday afternoon. Rep. Joseph Morelle (New York), the top Democrat on the Committee on House Administration, said in a statement Saturday that it was "no coincidence" the register of copyrights position was terminated shortly after the office released its AI report. He called the White House's decision "a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis." The American Federation of Musicians union said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter's firing will "harm the entire copyright community." "She understood what we all know to be true: human creativity and authorship are the foundation of copyright law," the statement added. On Thursday, Hayden, the first woman and first African American to lead the Library of Congress, learned in an email that Trump had fired her. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a news conference Friday that Hayden had pursued diversity, equity and inclusion programs and put "inappropriate books" for children in the library. The Librarian of Congress, whom the president picks and the Senate confirms, doesn't usually depart with the outgoing administration. The last time an incoming president replaced the Librarian of Congress was in 1861. Newlen, the former principal deputy librarian, said in an email to staff Thursday that he would assume Hayden's responsibilities until he received further instruction. Two days later, after informing staff that Perlmutter's position had been terminated, Newlen concluded his message: "I promise to keep everyone informed." Skip to end of carousel Trump presidency Follow live updates on the Trump administration. We're tracking Trump's progress on campaign promises and legal challenges to his executive orders and actions. End of carousel Kelly Kasulis Cho contributed to this report.

Trump Fires Top Copyright Official Days After Terminating Librarian of Congress

President Donald Trump reportedly fired the leader of the United States Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, on Saturday. As Politico reports, the White House informed Perlmutter on Saturday afternoon that she had been terminated and would no longer serve as Register of Copyrights, according to internal Library of Congress communications Politico obtained. Federal law requires that the Register of Copyrights be appointed by the Librarian of Congress, a position that requires presidential nomination and Senate confirmation to be filled. Last Thursday, the Trump administration fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, via a two-sentence email. Hayden was slated to occupy the role until her 10-year term expired in October 2026. Hayden was the first woman and Black person to hold the position. The timing of Perlmutter's termination is interesting, to say the least. According to Representative Joe Morelle of New York, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, the congressional body that oversees the Library of Congress and U.S. Copyright Office, Perlmutter's firing is "no coincidence." "Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis. It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models," Morelle said in a statement. "Register Perlmutter is a patriot, and her tenure has propelled the Copyright Office into the 21st century by comprehensively modernizing its operations and setting global standards on the intersection of AI and intellectual property. "This action once again tramples on Congress's Article One authority and throws a trillion-dollar industry into chaos. When will my Republican colleagues decide enough is enough?" Earlier this year, the Copyright Office clarified its stance on AI-generated artwork, determining that copyright protection would only be afforded to works with meaningful human authorship, meaning that purely AI-generated works are not eligible for protections. "Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," Perlmutter said in late January. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright." Given the timing of Perlmutter's abrupt termination, many are worried that Elon Musk and his associates are gearing up to train AI models using copyrighted works, a move Perlmutter resisted. All works published in the United States under copyright protection are subject to mandatory deposit, meaning that the Library of Congress possesses a treasure trove of protected artwork. In less than a week, the two women charged with protecting this work have been removed.

Trump reportedly fires head of US copyright office after release of AI report

Dismissal of Shira Perlmutter follows firing of librarian of Congress, which oversees copyright office The Trump administration reportedly fired the head of the US copyright office over the weekend - within days of the dismissed official having published a report about how the development of artificial intelligence technology could run afoul of fair use law. The sacking of Shira Perlmutter as the register of copyrights and director of the copyrights office on Saturday, as reported by the Washington Post and NBC News, came two days after Donald Trump fired the librarian of Congress, who oversees the copyright office. Perlmutter took over the copyrights office in 2020, and some of her employees suspect her firing may stem from her recent report on how using copyrighted material to train AI tech could overstep laws governing fair use, according to the Post's reporting. The New York congressman Joe Morelle, a Democrat, also speculated that Perlmutter's report may have motivated the Trump administration to fire her, calling her dismissal a "brazen, unprecedented power grab". The report from Perlmutter was not highly critical of the use of AI, saying the copyright office believed "government intervention would be premature at this time". Since the second Trump administration took office in January, the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge) overseen seen by the billionaire Elon Musk has been tasked with slashing federal spending. And Doge reportedly has been attempting to use AI to make cuts to federal funding. Additionally, Musk, a staunch Trump ally who owns an AI firm himself, has publicly supported deleting intellectual property laws. Perlmutter's firing evidently signals another step by the Trump administration to reshape the federal government by ousting officials who he believes may resist his agenda. Just days earlier, Trump abruptly fired Carla Hayden as librarian of Congress. Hayden was the first woman and the first Black person to serve in the role. According to the White House, her firing was due to her pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs which Trump has pledged to eliminate. Hayden had been targeted by rightwing groups who accused her of promoting children's books that the groups claim are inappropriate. The conservative American Accountability Foundation had urged the Trump administration to fire her, saying she was "woke" and "anti-Trump". The Library of Congress in Washington DC is available to the public, holding millions of items, including books and historical documents. It also administers copyright law through its oversight of the copyright office.

White House fires Copyright Office leaders as controversial AI report surfaces

President Donald Trump signs an AI education executive order in the Oval Office. Credit: Trump shows off the signed AI education executive order. Credit: Over the weekend, President Donald Trump fired the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter, less than a day after the office rushed out a sure-to-be-controversial report on artificial intelligence. The report found that AI companies training their models on copyrighted materials may not be protected by the fair use legal doctrine. The report's findings are advisory, but they could be influential in upcoming court cases on the subject. Not only that, but on Thursday, May 8, President Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, who oversaw the U.S. Copyright Office. In firing Dr. Hayden, The White House cited the Library's DEI initiatives. However, the timing of the firings and the unusual circumstances surrounding the publication of the AI report has alarmed some copyright lawyers. Cornell H. Winston, the President of the American Association of Law Libraries, issued a statement to AALL members on Monday saying he was "deeply concerned" by the firings of Perlmutter and Dr. Hayden, though this letter did not mention the AI report specifically. President Trump has pledged to take a business-friendly approach to artificial intelligence, and he issued two executive orders in April to promote the United States' leadership in the AI industry. The U.S. Copyright Office has been working on a consequential three-part report about copyright law and artificial intelligence, with big implications for AI companies. At present, many legal aspects of artificial intelligence and copyright law are unsettled, with high-stakes court cases involving OpenAI and Meta currently working their way through the courts. The third and final report, "Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Part 3: Generative AI Training," dealt with precisely the type of fair use arguments at stake in some of these cases. Specifically, the report examines whether training AI models on copyrighted material such as books, movies, news articles, and images is a violation of copyright law, or whether it's protected under the fair use doctrine. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable's parent company, filed a lawsuit in April against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) Rather than waiting to release a final version of the report and promoting its release, the office instead quietly released a "pre-publication version" of the report on Friday. The preliminary version casts doubt on the viability of the fair use defense, potentially hobbling companies like Meta and OpenAI in the courtroom. Part 3 of the report also says that artists may suffer financial harm from AI-generated material that mimics the style of their work, as well as lost licensing opportunities if AI companies can train their models on copyrighted works without compensating the creators. On Thursday, the Librarian of Congress was fired; on Friday, the U.S. Copyright Office released a pre-publication Part 3 of its report; and on Saturday, the leader of the Copyright Office gets sacked. When the report was unexpectedly published late Friday, copyright lawyer and Associate Professor of Law Blake E. Reid with the University of Colorado Law School posited on Bluesky if a purge of copyright staff might be imminent. Reid wrote, "the 'Pre-Publication' status is very strange and conspicuously timed relative to the firing of the Librarian of Congress. I continue to wonder (speculatively!) if a purge at the Copyright Office is incoming and they felt the need to rush this out." Hours later, the White House fired Perlmutter. In a statement provided to Mashable, a spokesperson with the U.S. Copyright Office provided only this brief comment: "On Saturday afternoon, May 10, 2025, the White House sent an email to Shira Perlmutter saying your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately.'" The office provided "no further comment at this time" to our questions about the timing of the report's release. We reached out to the White House for comment on the report's release and Perlmutter and Dr. Hayden's firings, and we'll update this article if we receive a reply. Reid described the artificial intelligence report as a "straight-ticket loss for the AI companies" on Bluesky. And in a phone interview with Mashable, Reid said it was strange the report was published so soon after the high-profile firing of the Librarian of Congress. "It's hard for me to come up with a sequence of events there that doesn't involve the administration trying to do something about AI," Reid said. "I still don't think we know what that something is...but I just saw that as being the Occam's Razor explanation, especially with the register being fired the next day." "The AI companies were hoping for the Office to kind of come around and throw them some lifelines in the litigation they could use to support their position," Reid said. Instead, the report concluded, "there are definitely some things that are beyond the bounds of what we've recognized as fair use. You know, the sort of language and sort of specific theories they used to back it up did not strike me as helpful, and are probably pretty unhelpful, to the AI companies if the report were to get picked up by a court." Though some copyright lawyers are concerned, suspicious timing doesn't necessarily prove the events are directly related. The pre-publication version of Part 3 of the report is available to read online at the U.S. Copyright Office website.

Trump fires director of U.S. Copyright Office, sources say

Scott MacFarlane is CBS News' Justice correspondent. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. His reporting has resulted directly in the passage of five new laws. The Trump administration has fired the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, two sources familiar with the situation confirmed to CBS News Saturday. The firing of Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter came after Perlmutter and her office earlier this week issued part three of a lengthy report about artificial intelligence and expressed some concerns and questions about the usage of copyrighted materials by AI technology. "It is an open question, however, how much data an AI developer needs, and the marginal effect of more data on a model's capabilities," the report read. "Not everyone agrees that further increases in data and test performance will necessarily lead to continued real world improvements in utility." CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment. President Trump has been a major proponent of AI. Immediately after taking office, he announced a joint venture involving OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle that will invest up to $500 billion in private sector money to build artificial intelligence infrastructure. Perlmutter had held the position since October 2020, during the first Trump Administration. She was appointed to the post by now former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who herself was fired by Mr. Trump on Thursday. The U.S. Copyright Office, which has a staff of approximately 450 people, is a department of the Library of Congress. It is tasked with registering copyright claims, recording copyright ownership information and administering copyright law, among other things.

Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration has fired the nation's top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office. The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that "your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately." On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration's ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter's office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to "train" their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that Perlmutter began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. "Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," Perlmutter said in January. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright." The White House didn't return a message seeking comment Sunday. Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter's firing. "Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday.

Trump administration reportedly fires the head of the US Copyright Office as it tries to tackle AI's use of copyrighted materials

The Trump administration has fired Shira Perlmutter, the prior register of copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office, by email -- according to reports from The Washington Post and Tech Crunch. A statement from US democrat representative Joe Morelle alleges that the termination is a "brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis" and, in the representative's view, "It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models." "Register Perlmutter is a patriot, and her tenure has propelled the Copyright Office into the 21st century by comprehensively modernizing its operations and setting global standards on the intersection of AI and intellectual property" says Morelle. Morelle linked a pre-publication version of a US Copyright Office report [PDF warning] on copyright and artificial intelligence in his statement, in which the office states that there are limitations on how much AI companies can count on fair use as a defence when training models on copyrighted content. OpenAI, co-founded by Musk, and Meta are currently facing a number of lawsuits accusing them of copyright infringement, including one involving comedian Sarah Silverman and two other authors alleging that pirated versions of their works were used to train AI language models without their permission. Meta has argued that such usage falls under fair use doctrine. Musk, meanwhile, has recently expressed support for ex-Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's call to "delete all IP law." Musk is also the co-founder of xAI, an artificial intelligence company responsible for the Grok AI chatbot integrated within X -- and the owner of Collosus, a massive multi-GPU supercomputer built to train the latest version of the unfortunately-named chatbot. Perlmutter was appointed into her previous role in 2020 during the previous Trump administration by librarian of congress Carla Hayden, who Trump also fired earlier this week by email. So, it appears that the Trump administration is in the process of clearing house. Meanwhile, the argument as to whether training AI models on copyrighted works counts as fair usage continues, and probably will for some time.

Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration has fired the nation's top copyright official , Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office. The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that "your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately." On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration's ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter's office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to "train" their AI systems. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. "Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," Perlmutter said in January. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright." The White House didn't return a message seeking comment Sunday. Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter's firing. "Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously also worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday. __ Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.

Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress

The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that "your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately." On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration's ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter's office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to "train" their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that Perlmutter began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. "Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," Perlmutter said in January. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright." The White House didn't return a message seeking comment Sunday. Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter's firing. "Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday. __ Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.

Trump Administration Fires Top Copyright Official Days After Firing Librarian of Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration has fired the nation's top copyright official , Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office. The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that "your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately." On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration's ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter's office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to "train" their AI systems. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. "Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," Perlmutter said in January. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright." The White House didn't return a message seeking comment Sunday. Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter's firing. "Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously also worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday. __ Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Trump administration fires top copyright official Shira Perlmutter days after firing Librarian of Congress

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has fired the nation's top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office. The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that "your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately." On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration's ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter's office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to "train" their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that Perlmutter began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. "Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," Perlmutter said in January. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright." The White House didn't return a message seeking comment Sunday. Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter's firing. "Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday.

Trump fires head of US copyright office

The Trump administration fired US Copyright Office director Shira Perlmutter, sparking backlash from lawmakers who called it unlawful. The move followed her report questioning AI firms' copyright practices, amid claims she resisted Elon Musk's attempts to exploit copyrighted content.The Trump administration fired the top US copyright official in an email from the White House on Saturday, a US Copyright Office spokesperson confirmed. The firing of Copyright Office director Shira Perlmutter follows President Donald Trump's termination of US Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Friday. The Copyright Office is a department of the Library of Congress. Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Perlmutter's firing on Monday. Democratic US Senators Adam Schiff of California and Chuck Schumer of New York called Perlmutter's firing unlawful in a joint statement and said that Congress "purposefully insulated this role and the US Copyright Office from politics." The Copyright Office under Perlmutter released a report late on May 9 advising that technology companies' use of vast amounts of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems which "produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets" may not be protected by US copyright law. Tech companies including OpenAI and Meta Platforms have told the office that being forced to pay copyright holders for their content could cripple the burgeoning US AI industry. Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Morelle of New York said in a statement that it was "surely no coincidence" that Perlmutter was fired "less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models." Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has reportedly used AI in its efforts to reduce the size of the federal government, also owns artificial intelligence company xAI. Musk and spokespeople for DOGE and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Perlmutter's firing.

AI takes a big toll as Donald Trump fires U.S. Copyright Chief Shira Perlmutter; here's what happened and why she was sacked

Shira Perlmutter, U.S. Copyright Chief, was fired after releasing a report that warned against AI using copyrighted work without permission.AI is rapidly advancing as technology evolves. Like the internet, it has divided people into two groups, those who believe AI is making their work easier and those who fear it is replacing humans. Amid this ongoing debate, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office was fired. Shira Perlmutter, the head of the U.S. The Copyright Office, was fired just a few days after her office released a major report about artificial intelligence (AI). She got an email saying she was removed from her job. She was chosen for the job in 2020 by Carla Hayden. Carla Hayden was also fired last week by Donald Trump. She previously led the Library of Congress, and Acting Librarian Robert Newlen notified staff about the development via email, according to The Washington Post. The Copyright Office released an important third part of the report recently. This report talked about how AI companies are using copyrighted content like books, songs, art, etc. to train AI systems. The report said that using big amounts of copyrighted material to make money, especially without permission, is not okay under the "fair use" rule. The report could stop AI companies from using other people's work like music, stories, or art without asking. This would affect companies like Elon Musk's AI company called xAI. Congressman Joe Morelle, a Democrat, said it's not a coincidence. He thinks Trump fired her because she did not support Elon Musk's plan to use copyrighted material for AI. Elon Musk had said on X that intellectual property laws should be removed. Musk tried to buy OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT in February, but failed. Joe Morelle called the firing an illegal power grab and said it harms a trillion-dollar industry. He asked, When will Republicans say enough is enough? The American Federation of Musicians which is a group for music professionals also criticized the firing. They said Perlmutter was defending human creativity and got fired because of it. Carla Hayden, the first woman and first Black person to lead the Library of Congress, was also fired by Trump last week. No official reason was given, but a conservative group had recently called her "woke" and "anti-Trump." They posted on social media stating "It's time to get her OUT and hire a new guy for the job". Q1. Why was Shira Perlmutter fired? Because of her report against AI using copyrighted content. Q2. Who replaced Shira Perlmutter after she was fired? Robert Newlen is now the acting Librarian who informed staff.

Trump fires head of US Copyright Office -- stoking fears about...

President Donald Trump fired the nation's top copyright official -- a move critics say threatens the independence of the US Copyright Office and could upend efforts to regulate artificial intelligence companies' use of protected material. Shira Perlmutter, who has served as Register of Copyrights since 2020, was informed Saturday afternoon that her employment had been "terminated," according to internal communications from the Library of Congress reviewed by Politico. Her dismissal comes just two days after the White House also fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the official responsible for appointing and overseeing the Copyright Office. Hayden, who was confirmed by the Senate in 2016 for a 10-year term, had appointed Perlmutter. Neither dismissal came with a formal explanation, but lawmakers are already drawing connections between Perlmutter's ousting and a recent Copyright Office report that questioned the legality of how artificial intelligence companies use copyrighted content to train generative models -- a core business issue for Elon Musk, a longtime Trump ally. "It is no coincidence [Trump] acted less than a day after [Perlmutter] refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models," said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which has oversight of the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office. Perlmutter's office had just released a detailed report on copyright and artificial intelligence, the third installment in an ongoing series examining the legal and economic implications of AI-generated content. While the report stopped short of recommending immediate regulatory action, it cast doubt on the sweeping "fair use" defenses many AI firms rely on to justify scraping copyrighted materials. "But making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries," the report stated. Though the report encouraged the development of licensing markets and floated ideas like extended collective licensing to address gaps, it warned against premature government intervention -- a stance that may not align with the priorities of tech moguls seeking fewer legal roadblocks. Morelle accused the Trump administration of overstepping its constitutional boundaries. "This action once again tramples on Congress's Article One authority and throws a trillion-dollar industry into chaos," he said. "When will my Republican colleagues decide enough is enough?" The White House has not responded to requests for comment. Musk, who helped launch OpenAI and now leads the rival xAI (which is merging with X, formerly Twitter), recently backed a call by Jack Dorsey to "delete all IP law." His AI ventures are among several currently facing lawsuits from content creators alleging copyright infringement. In May 2024, OpenAI and The Post's parent company News Corp announced a landmark multi-year agreement granting OpenAI access to a vast array of News Corp's current and archived news content. The Post has sought comment from News Corp and the News/Media Alliance. Under current law, the Register of Copyrights is appointed by the Librarian of Congress, not the president -- although the Librarian's position itself is subject to presidential nomination and Senate confirmation. Trump's direct involvement in the dismissals has prompted alarm over political interference in what has traditionally been a nonpartisan regulatory domain. With the leadership of both the Library and Copyright Office now vacant, it remains unclear how future disputes over AI and copyright will be handled.