WGA Demands Immediate Reinstatement of US Copyright Office Head After Trump’s ‘Unlawful’ Firing

The Trump administration fired the head of the U.S. Copyright Office Shira Perlmutter just days after her office published a report critical of the use of artificial intelligence in government agencies.

The Writers Guild of America East called her firing unlawful and agreed with her report, titled “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Part 3: Generative AI Training,” and its assessment that AI companies that train their systems through “unauthorized access to copyrighted materials goes beyond established fair use boundaries” and could cause harm to copyright owners.

“The findings issued under Perlmutter’s authority stand in contrast to the opinion and financial interests of billionaires like Elon Musk and Sam Altman, Trump allies who own AI companies and want to freely steal copyrighted works to train their AI systems and undermine the dozens of copyright lawsuits against their companies,” the guild said in a statement Friday.

WGAE also demanded the “immediate reinstatement” of Perlmutter, saying President Donald Trump’s executive branch “had no authority to fire her in the first place.”

Perlmutter’s report said that the copyright office believed government intervention with AI would be “premature at this time.” Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has reportedly used AI to make federal funding cuts.

Musk along with other tech billionaires have expressed their support for the president. OpenAI’s Sam Altman donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. The president even proposed a $500 billion investment into AI forming a new partnership with OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank during his first week in office.

Trump’s removal of the copyright head comes just a few days after his administration fired the head of the Library of Congress Carla Hayden after she refused to eliminate DEI programs. Both women were removed from positions of power after they made moves contrary to the president’s agenda. 

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