Donald Trump fires copyright chief after AI report raises red flags

US President Donald Trump has dismissed Shira Perlmutter, the head of the US Copyright Office, just days after her office raised concerns over the use of copyrighted material in training artificial intelligence models.

The move has triggered fierce backlash from Democrats, with accusations of executive overreach and interference in copyright regulation.

According to CBS News, Perlmutter was removed shortly after the release of part three of a major AI policy report by the Copyright Office. The report questioned whether the mass use of copyrighted data by AI companies could be justified, noting, “It is an open question... how much data an AI developer needs, and the marginal effect of more data on a model’s capabilities.”

Perlmutter, who has led the Copyright Office since October 2020, was appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who herself was fired on Thursday in a two-sentence email from the White House.

Hayden had been serving a 10-year Senate-confirmed term.

The White House has not issued an official statement on either firing. However, internal Library of Congress communications confirmed that Perlmutter was informed Saturday afternoon that her position had been “terminated”, reported Politico.

Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, condemned the move as “a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis.”

In a statement quoted by both CBS News, he suggested that the timing was directly related to Perlmutter's refusal to endorse tech billionaire Elon Musk’s apparent attempts to access copyrighted content for AI training.

Musk, who owns the startup xAI and recently failed in a bid to purchase OpenAI, has publicly questioned the legitimacy of intellectual property laws. Last month, he appeared to endorse their elimination in a post on X, the platform he owns.

“This action once again tramples on Congress’s Article One authority and throws a trillion-dollar industry into chaos,” Morelle said, referring to the federal law that places the US Copyright Office under the authority of the Librarian of Congress, not the president.

Since returning to office, President Trump has aggressively promoted AI initiatives. He recently announced a $500 billion private-sector joint venture involving OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle to develop national AI infrastructure.

With the firing of both the Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyrights, critics warn of a dangerous precedent. “When will my Republican colleagues decide enough is enough?” Morelle asked.