Trump Fires Copyright Office Director Over AI Training Concerns in Report

President Donald Trump has removed Shira Perlmutter from her position as the head of the U.S. Copyright Office.

Reports from CBS News and Politico confirm the dismissal, with Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee for House Administration, issuing a statement regarding the matter.

“Donald Trump’s firing of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is an obvious and unprecedented power grab without any legal basis,” Morelle remarked. “It is certainly not a coincidence that this action followed closely after she refused to support Elon Musk’s initiatives to use extensive copyrighted material for AI model development.”

Perlmutter took charge of the Copyright Office in 2020 during Trump’s first term, having been appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who was also dismissed by Trump this week.

Trump acknowledged the situation on his social media platform, Truth Social, by “ReTruthing” a post from attorney Mike Davis that referenced the CBS News article. Notably, Davis seemed to criticize the dismissal, remarking, “Now tech bros are going to try to exploit creators’ copyrights for AI profits.”

In connection with Musk (who has ties to Trump) and AI, Morelle shared an early version of a U.S. Copyright Office report recently released that discusses copyright concerns related to artificial intelligence. (This is part three of a comprehensive report.)

The report indicates that while it is “not feasible to preemptively judge” specific cases, there are restrictions on how much AI companies can lean on “fair use” as a defense when utilizing copyrighted works for training their models. For example, it suggests that research and analysis may generally be permissible.

“However, using substantial copyrighted works for commercial purposes to create expressive content that competes in existing markets—especially through unlawful access—exceeds recognized fair use boundaries,” it further asserts.

The Copyright Office also mentions that any government intervention “would be premature at this time,” while expressing hope that “licensing markets” enabling AI companies to compensate copyright holders for content access “should continue to evolve,” and notes that “alternative solutions like extended collective licensing should be considered to address any market deficiencies.”

AI firms such as OpenAI are presently embroiled in multiple lawsuits alleging copyright violations, and OpenAI has urged the U.S. government to create a copyright framework that offers AI companies greater leniency regarding fair use.

Meanwhile, Musk, who co-founded OpenAI and is also involved with rival startup xAI (which is merging with the former Twitter), has recently voiced support for Square founder Jack Dorsey’s initiative to “abolish all IP law.”