Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress
May 11, 2025, 10:15 AM
FILE - Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property oversight hearing of the United States Copyright Office, Nov. 13, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, file)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, file)
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Trump administration has fired the nation鈥檚 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 鈥測our position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately.鈥�
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鈥檚 office recently released examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to 鈥渢rain鈥� 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 鈥渃entrality of human creativity鈥� in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works.
鈥淲here that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,鈥� Perlmutter said in January. 鈥淓xtending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine … would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.鈥�
The White House didn鈥檛 return a message seeking comment Sunday.
Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter’s firing.
鈥淒onald Trump鈥檚 termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,鈥� 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.
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Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.
