Fired Copyright Office head sues Trump administration over removal
Shira Perlmutter, the fired head of the U.S. Copyright Office, has sued the Trump administration, claiming that her removal was “unlawful and ineffective.”
The U.S Copyright Office registers copyright claims and helps inform Congress about copyright policies. In 2020, Carla Hayden, then Librarian of Congress, appointed Perlmutter to head the office. Earlier this month, President Trump fired Hayden, whose 10-year term was about to expire next year, via email. A day later, Perlmutter also received an email stating that her position was terminated.
Since then, President Trump appointed Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general of the United States, as Hayden’s temporary replacement.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Perlmutter argued that only the Librarian of Congress has the power to appoint and remove the Register of Copyrights, and that the president has “no authority” to name a temporary replacement Librarian of Congress.
“In short, the President’s attempt to name Mr. Blanche as acting Librarian of Congress was
unlawful and ineffective, and therefore Mr. Blanche cannot remove or replace Ms. Perlmutter,” the lawsuit states.
NPR has reached out to the Justice Department and the White House for comment.
The shakeup at the Library of Congress is happening just as the Copyright Office published the third part of its report on Copyright and AI, which examines the use of copyrighted works in training generative AI. The report concluded that some usage of copyrighted material amounts to fair use, while others go “beyond established fair use boundaries.”
Perlmutter is seeking from the court a preliminary and permanent injunction stopping Blanche from exercising his powers as acting Librarian of Congress, and stating that Perlmutter may not be removed as the head of the Copyright Office.
‘Fairyland’ recalls a girl’s life with her poet father in pre-AIDS San Francisco
Alysia Abbott's memoir about growing up in 1970s San Francisco with her gay, single father, has been adapted into a film directed by Andrew Durham and produced by Sofia Coppola.
Los Angeles: Spaghetti Cumbia, a band born from cultural fusion
Photographers and storytellers Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky document cumbia music in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and the United States.
What are your holiday shopping plans? NPR wants to hear from you
Is this the season of cutbacks or splurges? As we prepare to cover holiday shopping and deals, NPR wants to hear from you, whatever your plans may be.
Laufey was an ‘odd fish’ in native Iceland. Now she’s a jazz-pop star
The Grammy Award-winning singer and musician had rigorous classical training. Now she's making music that crosses genres: "I've been inspired by Golden Age films, the va-va-voom of it all," she says.
What does Montreal sound like?
World Cafe is kicking off its latest Sense of Place series with a playlist that offers a glimpse of Montreal's lively music scene.
Dozens of Bob Ross paintings will be auctioned to help public TV after funding cuts
Thirty of Ross' trademark landscapes will be sold at a series of auctions starting in November. He painted many of them live on The Joy of Painting, which started airing on PBS in the 1980s.
