Dismissal of Shira Perlmutter follows firing of librarian of Congress, which oversees copyright office
Editor’s Note: Links to the AI report are included in my re-post…
Shira Perlmutter published a report about who artificial intelligence technology could run afoul of fair use law, days before her reported dismissal. Photograph: Mariam Zuhaib / AP
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
By José Olivares Mon 12 May 2025 10.46 EDT
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 (AI) 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”.
Editor’s Note: The Copyright and AI report is here: https://www.copyright.gov/ai/ ..a brief introduction, then links to the three (3) parts released so far.
