OAN Staff Abril Elfi
12:52 PM – Monday, May 12, 2025
The Trump administration has fired the top copyright official in the United States.
On Saturday, Shira Perlmutter, 69, was abruptly fired. She was in charge of the U.S. Copyright Office, which is overseen by the Library of Congress.
Perlmutter is an American attorney and “intellectual property expert” who served as the 14th Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office from October 2020 — until her dismissal this month.
Appointed by then-Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Perlmutter led the office’s efforts in advising Congress and federal agencies on copyright policy and overseeing the administration of the U.S. Copyright Act.
According to a report by Fox News Digital, the U.S. Copyright Office received an email from the White House that stated: “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately.”
A few days prior, on Thursday, the administration also let go of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.
“Carla,” the email from the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office reportedly began. “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”
In October 2020, Hayden tapped Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office.
Perlmutter’s agency recently published a report looking at whether artificial intelligence (AI) businesses can utilize copyrighted materials to “train” their AI systems. The report followed a review that began in 2023 and included feedback from thousands of notable people in the industry. However, the report raised also concerns about potential legal conflicts and the boundaries of fair use in the context of AI development.
The “centrality of human creativity” in creating a work that merits copyright protections is the foundation of the Copyright Office’s January clarification of its methodology. Millions of creative works are covered by the approximately half a million copyright applications that the Copyright Office receives annually.
“Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,” Perlmutter said in January. “Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine… would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.”
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