Trump Administration Fires Top Copyright Official After Removing Library of Congress Head

The Trump administration fired Shira Perlmutter, the top official at the U.S. Copyright Office, just days after removing the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the copyright office.

According to a statement from the office on Sunday, Perlmutter received an email from the White House informing her that her position as the Register of Copyrights and Director of the Copyright Office was terminated immediately, AP News reported.

This move comes shortly after President Donald Trump removed Carla Hayden, the first woman and African American to lead the Library of Congress, as part of an ongoing effort to remove government officials perceived as opposing his administration.

Hayden had appointed Perlmutter to head the Copyright Office in October 2020.

Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, previously served as a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office, focusing on copyright and other intellectual property matters. She also worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s.

Democrats Condemn Trump's Firing of Copyright Chief

"Donald Trump's termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in response to Perlmutter's firing.

Perlmutter's office recently published a report looking into whether AI companies can use copyrighted content to "train" their systems and then compete with the original human-made works. This report is the third part of a detailed study on AI, which Perlmutter started in 2023.

It includes feedback from thousands of people, including AI developers, actors, and country singers.

Copyright Office Reaffirms Focus on Human Creativity, Rejects AI-Generated Works for Protection

In January, the office explained that its approach is centered on the importance of human creativity in creating works that deserve copyright protection. Each year, the office processes about half a million copyright applications for millions of creative works.

Perlmutter said at that time that if creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, the work will still be protected. However, granting protection to works created entirely by machines would weaken the original goals of copyright as outlined in the Constitution.