The Controversy
In late May 2025, President Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, who led the U.S. Copyright Office. This was just days after he also dismissing the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The timing of Perlmutter’s termination sparked significant controversy due to her firing in proximity to the Copyright Office’s release of a major report on artificial intelligence’s impact on copyright law.
The AI Report Connection
Perlmutter’s office had just released a 108-page report on artificial intelligence that raised concerns about using copyrighted materials to train AI systems. This was actually a pre-publication, the third report of three-report study on AI’s impact on copyright. This third report, however, focused on any fair use defenses that may be available to the use of copyrighted material for training and generating the outputs AI systems without permission, license or compensation. There is also a lengthy section on the argumentative aspects of AI systems as a transformative use (in a substantial similarity analysis, this falls under the first prong of the test). Publishers and creators argue that firms’ unauthorized and uncompensated use of massive quantities of copyrighted text, video and audio is simply theft, while AI firms argue they’re protected by fair use, claiming their models are just learning from the material like a student might.
Industry and Political Reactions
The firing has raised serious concerns across multiple industries. The timing of Perlmutter’s dismissal, following a report sympathetic to copyright owners on AI, has raised worries over Trump’s closeness to Big Tech. The moves have prompted consternation among those concerned with the rights of content creators, particularly in Hollywood and the music industry.
Legal Challenge and Aftermath
Perlmutter has since sued the Trump administration over her firing, though a federal District of Columbia judge denied the temporary restraining order to halt the termination. There is a problem with Perlmutter’s firing by Trump because her position falls under the Library of Congress, which falls under the jurisdiction of the legislative branch,1 which means only an act of Congress could remove her from her position. Perlmutter’s and Hayden’s firings appear, then, to be cases involving a power struggle as Trump aims to expand his central authority over the federal government. However, this may be misplaced because the Register of Copyrights is a non-partisan federal position, the duties of which include acting as the principal advisor to Congress on copyright matters, registering copyrights, and developing copyright policies and regulations.
The controversy also highlights the broader tension between AI companies seeking broad access to training data and content creators and publishers who want compensation and control over how their copyrighted works are used in AI development. For more information on AI, fair use, and copyright law, please contact Yonaxis I.P. Law Group.
- U.S. Const., Art. I, sec. 5, 8. ↩︎