The Trump administration ousted Shira Perlmutter, the U.S. Register of Copyrights, just one day after her office issued a detailed report on artificial intelligence that questioned broad use of copyrighted materials for training AI models.
AI report questions: Perlmutter's dismissal on May 10, 2025, follows the May 8 firing of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden—who appointed Perlmutter—intensifying scrutiny over the administration's stance on intellectual property in the age of AI. The moves have sparked immediate backlash from some lawmakers and creative industry advocates. The Copyright Office's pre-publication AI report suggested that making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce competing content, especially via illegal access, "goes beyond established fair use boundaries." It also noted that if an AI model can produce "substantially similar outputs that directly substitute for works in the training data, it can lead to lost sales" for creators. While the report stated government intervention would be "premature at this time," it hoped for the development of licensing markets.
Creator concerns: The American Federation of Musicians union stated Perlmutter’s firing will “harm the entire copyright community,” adding her understanding that “human creativity and authorship are the foundation of copyright law.” These concerns echo ongoing lawsuits by major music rightsholders against AI companies over unauthorized use of copyrighted materials.
Perlmutter's removal comes as Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service works to combine federal data for AI-driven efficiency cuts. A January 2025 statement from Perlmutter affirmed that creativity expressed through AI systems warrants protection, but extending it to machine-determined expressive elements "would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright." The White House offered no immediate comment on Perlmutter's dismissal, though it previously cited Carla Hayden's pursuit of DEI programs and "inappropriate books" as reasons for her firing.