U.S. President Donald Trump recently dismissed Shira Perlmutter, the director of the U.S. Copyright Office, a move that has drawn significant attention. According to reports from CBS News and Politico, Rep. Joe Morelle strongly opposed the dismissal, calling it an "outrageous and unprecedented power grab with no legal basis." He pointed out that Perlmutter's removal was closely related to her refusal to support Tesla founder Elon Musk's request to use large amounts of copyrighted works for artificial intelligence training.
Perlmutter assumed her position as director of the U.S. Copyright Office in 2020 during Trump's first term, appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Trump hinted at the incident on his social media platform Truth Social by sharing a post from attorney Mike Davis linked to CBS News. Interestingly, Davis seemed to criticize the dismissal, stating that "technology companies will try to steal creators' copyrights for AI profits."
This event is closely tied to Musk and artificial intelligence. Morelle mentioned a recent report released by the U.S. Copyright Office, which explores the relationship between copyright and artificial intelligence. Although the report notes that it cannot predict individual case outcomes, it emphasizes that AI companies cannot overly rely on "fair use" as a defense when using copyrighted content to train models. The report states that research and analysis may be permitted, but if commercial purposes involve generating content through illegal access to large-scale copyrighted works that compete with existing markets, it exceeds the bounds of fair use.
Additionally, the report suggests that government intervention at this stage is "premature," but hopes that the "licensing market" can continue to develop, allowing AI companies to pay fees to copyright holders for content access rights. At the same time, the report mentions that alternative methods such as "expanded collective licensing" should also be considered to address market failures.
Currently, AI companies like OpenAI are facing multiple copyright infringement lawsuits. Meanwhile, OpenAI has called on the U.S. government to formulate a copyright strategy that provides more flexibility for AI companies in terms of fair use.
It is worth noting that Musk is not only a co-founder of OpenAI but also the founder of competitor xAI. He has recently expressed support for Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's call to "abolish all intellectual property laws."
Key points:
🌟 The dismissal of the copyright office director by Trump has drawn widespread attention.
🤖 The dismissal was related to refusing to support Musk's use of copyrighted works for AI training.
📄 The latest report from the Copyright Office emphasizes that AI companies cannot overly rely on "fair use" when using copyrighted content.