President Donald Trump has dismissed Shira Perlmutter from her position as head of the U.S. Copyright Office, a move described by critics as unprecedented and controversial. This decision, initially reported by CBS News and Politico, was later effectively confirmed through a statement from Representative Joe Morelle, the leading Democrat on the House Administration Committee.
Representative Morelle condemned the dismissal sharply, calling it an explicit and unprecedented abuse of presidential authority without legal foundation. He argued it was no coincidence that Trump’s decision came less than 24 hours after Perlmutter reportedly refused to approve a request from Elon Musk to extensively mine copyrighted material for the purpose of training artificial intelligence systems.
Perlmutter had been leading the Copyright Office since 2020, having been appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, whom President Trump also removed from her position earlier this week.
Trump appeared to acknowledge the firing by reposting the story on his Truth Social platform, indirectly referencing the event through attorney Mike Davis’ comment criticizing the action. Davis expressed concerns that the firing would enable influential technology figures to appropriate copyrighted materials for profit-driven AI projects.
According to Morelle, the firing is connected to the recent publication of a Copyright Office report dealing with the intersection of AI training and copyright law. In particular, this analysis underscored that there exist considerable legal limitations on the ability of AI developers to invoke “fair use” defenses when using copyrighted works for commercial endeavors, especially if these activities disrupt existing markets or involve illicit access.
The report notably recommended caution regarding immediate government intervention, instead encouraging AI companies to develop and engage in licensing arrangements with copyright holders. It specifically noted that commercial practices involving the large-scale utilization of copyrighted works to produce competing products clearly exceed traditional fair-use protections.
Companies such as OpenAI are already facing lawsuits claiming copyright infringement related to AI training methodologies, leading OpenAI itself to request formal legislative clarity from the U.S. government regarding the scope of fair use rights for AI training.
Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before launching competitor xAI—recently merged with X (formerly Twitter)—has openly endorsed calls by other industry leaders like Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Square, to significantly relax or altogether abolish traditional intellectual property regulations.
