Trump Administration fires Copyright Commissioner who raised concerns about AI companies using copyrighted material to train their AI
It has become clear that President Donald Trump has fired Shira Perlmutter, director of the United States Copyright Office. Although the reason has not been disclosed, it has been pointed out that the firing is related to 'copyright issues' involving Elon Musk, who has a close relationship with President Trump.
Trump fires director of US Copyright Office, sources say - CBS News
Trump fires top US copyright official - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/10/trump-us-copyright-official-00340306
The Trump administration reportedly fired the head of the US Copyright Office after its preliminary report questioning whether training AI on copyrighted material is fair use. | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/664768/trump-fires-us-copyright-office-head
Shira Perlmutter served as the Copyright Office Director since October 2020 during the first Trump administration. As head of the Copyright Office, she often advises the government on copyright policy, and just one day before her dismissal she had just submitted a (PDF file) opinion on training AI models using copyrighted material.
The opinion's conclusion mentioned 'fair use' in training AI models, stating, 'The determination of fair use of AI training depends on what work is used, from what source, for what purpose, and by what output method. Commercially using a vast amount of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with copyrighted works in existing markets exceeds fair use, especially when training is conducted through illegal access. While AI for research or academic purposes may be fair use, many other AI may not.'
Some AI companies, such as xAI, the company that develops the chat AI 'Grok' of Mr. Musk, who has a close relationship with President Trump, and Sam Altman's OpenAI, have been criticized for illegally using copyrighted materials for training. On the other hand, AI companies continue to argue that 'using copyrighted materials for training should be recognized as fair use.'
OpenAI says 'AI race ends if training on copyrighted work is not fair use' - GIGAZINE
Musk agrees that 'all intellectual property laws should be abolished.'
Jack Dorsey says 'Abolish all intellectual property laws' and Elon Musk agrees - GIGAZINE
President Trump has signed an executive order to ease AI regulations and has pledged to develop an AI action plan in July 2025 to maintain and strengthen America's AI advantage.
Following Perlmutter's dismissal from the administration's strong support for AI, Rep. Joe Morrell, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Copyright Office and the Library of Congress, issued a statement condemning the move, saying, 'It is no coincidence that this comes the day after we rejected Elon Musk's attempts to scrape copyrighted material. Perlmutter's firing is an unprecedented, bold power grab without any legal basis.'
Federal law requires that the Librarian of Congress appoint and oversee the position of Copyright Officer, and Perlmutter was appointed by former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who was also fired by President Trump a few days before Perlmutter's dismissal. No reasons were given for either move. It is unclear whether the release of the Copyright Office's investigation results was the reason for Perlmutter's dismissal, or if the timing was simply bad.
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