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Shira Perlmutter

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Shira Perlmutter
14th Register of Copyrights
In office
October 25, 2020 – May 10, 2025 (disputed)
Appointed byCarla Hayden
Preceded byMaria Strong (acting)
Succeeded byPaul Perkins (acting, disputed)[1]
Personal details
Born1956 (age 68–69)
RelativesSaul Perlmutter (brother)
EducationHarvard University (BA)
University of Pennsylvania (JD)

Shira Perlmutter (born 1956) is an American attorney, a law professor, and the 14th Register of Copyrights, the official who oversees the United States Copyright Office within the Library of Congress.[2] Perlmutter has given public lectures on copyright, stating that Americans desire copyright laws that make sense, that are fair, and that reflect the technologies currently in use.[3] She has stated a desire for laws that keep pace with technology.[3]

She is a research fellow at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre at Oxford University.[4] She co-authored a leading casebook: International Intellectual Property Law and Policy.[4]

Perlmutter was the chief policy officer and director for international affairs at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.[5]

Previously, she was executive vice president for global legal policy at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.[5] She was vice president and associate general counsel for intellectual property policy at Time Warner.[5] In 1995, she was appointed to be the first associate register for policy and international affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office.[6] She was the copyright consultant to the Clinton administration’s Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure in 1994–95.[6] She worked at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison doing general commercial litigation immediately after graduation from law school.[7]

Early life and education

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Perlmutter was born in 1956 to Felice Davidson Perlmutter, a social work and social administration professor emerita of the Temple University School of Social Administration, and to Daniel Perlmutter, a chemical engineering professor emeritus of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.[8][9].[10] Her maternal grandfather, Samuel Davidson (1903–1989), emigrated from the Bessarabian town of Floreşti to Canada in 1919 and then, with her grandmother, Chaika Newman, to New York. Perlmutter and her two siblings, her sister, Tova, and her brother, Saul, who is a 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physics, were raised near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the Mount Airy neighborhood and educated at Quaker schools.[10][7]

Perlmutter is a graduate of Harvard University, which awarded her an A.B. degree in linguistics.[7] She earned her J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.[5]

Disputed dismissal

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In 2020, she was appointed to head the U.S. Copyright Office by the official overseeing that office since the creation of the office in 1897, the Librarian of Congress.[7] Perlmutter was fired by the Trump administration, according to reporting on May 10, 2025. The firing came after Perlmutter and her office issued a lengthy report about artificial intelligence, questioning the use of copyrighted materials to train AI.[11][12] Perlmutter has sued to dispute the legality of the dismissal,[13] as the Register is appointed by, and responsible to, the Librarian of Congress.

Congressman Joe Morelle criticized the firing, speculating that Perlmutter was fired because "she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models".[14]

Earlier in the same week as the Perlmutter dismissal, the official who appointed Perlmutter to the office within the library, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, had been fired abruptly and without explanation by Trump ,[14] drawing similar criticism.[12] As of 12 May 2025. new personnel for both positions had not been nominated. The Perlmutter lawsuit followed soon thereafter.

References

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  1. ^ https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/14/library-of-congress-trump-takeover-carla-hayden-00349275
  2. ^ "U.S. Copyright Office Welcomes New Register". Copyright Office NewsNet. No. 857. U.S. Copyright Office. October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Perlmutter, Shira (2017-10-24). "From Paralysis to Progress: The (Useful) Art of Copyright Pragmatism". CUA Law Scholarship Repository. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  4. ^ a b c d "Shira Perlmutter". USPTO. 2012-01-13. Archived from the original on 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  5. ^ a b "Shira Perlmutter". University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School • Penn Law. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  6. ^ a b c d "Directing IP in DC". The Journal. 2023-06-01. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  7. ^ "CBE Faculty – Daniel D. Perlmutter". upenn.edu.
  8. ^ "Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research – Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin". brynmawr.edu.
  9. ^ a b "Saul Perlmutter Biographical". Nobel Prize. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  10. ^ Tully-McManus, Katherine (2025-05-10). "Trump fires top US copyright official". Politico. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
  11. ^ a b Belanger, Ashley (2025-05-12). "Copyright Office head fired after reporting AI training isn't always fair use". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  12. ^ Smith, Dylan, Fired Copyright Office Head Shira Perlmutter Sues Trump Administration Over ‘Blatantly Unlawful’ Dismissal, Digital Music News, May 23, 2025
  13. ^ a b MacFarlane, Scott (May 10, 2025). "Trump fires director of U.S. Copyright Office, sources say". CBS. Retrieved May 11, 2025.
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