With the chaos at the United States Copyright Office, alarms have been raised about potential issues with its certificates.
https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2025/06/05/are-new-copyright-registrations-valid/
#USCopyrightOffice
Judge Declines To Immediately Block Trump’s Effort To Fire Register Of Copyrights
#News #Politics #DonaldTrump #ElectionLine #LibraryofCongress #ShiraPerlmutter #USCopyrightOffice
https://deadline.com/2025/05/trump-register-of-copyrights-shira-perlmutter-1236412633/
European Publishers Council stays true to the tired old trope about “copyright theft”
A few weeks ago Walled Culture explored how the leaders in the generative AI world are trying to influence the future legal norms for this field. In the face of a powerful new form of an old technology – AI itself has been around for over 50 years – those are certainly needed. Governments around the world know this too: they are grappling with the new issues that large language models […]
#adtech #advertising #artificialIntelligence #bbc #bots #contextualAdvertising #eu #euipo #europeanPublishersCouncil #factChecking #genai #generativeAi #guardian #journalism #licensing #llms #searchEngines #slogan #training #uk #usCopyrightOffice
Authors Guild Petitions to Reinstate U.S. Copyright Chief; European Creators Demand AI Transparency: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
It is a week of petitions in the books world. With thanks to Porter Anderson over at Publishing Perspectives for drawing attention to this. Both of them touch on copyright. They may or may not also…
https://selfpublishingadvice.org/petitions/
#AItransparency #AuthorsGuild #copyrightpetitions #Europeancreators #USCopyrightOffice
@indieauthors
Copyright Office head fired after reporting AI training isn’t always fair use – Ars Technica
“Power grab”
Cops scuffle with Trump picks at Copyright Office after AI report stuns tech industry.
Ashley Belanger – May 12, 2025 12:37 PM |
A man holds a flag that reads “Shame” outside the Library of Congress on May 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. On May 8th, President Donald Trump fired Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress, and Shira Perlmutter, the head of the US Copyright Office, just days after. Credit: Kayla Bartkowski / Staff | Getty Images NewsA day after the US Copyright Office dropped a bombshell pre-publication report challenging artificial intelligence firms’ argument that all AI training should be considered fair use, the Trump administration fired the head of the Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter—sparking speculation that the controversial report hastened her removal.
Tensions have apparently only escalated since. Now, as industry advocates decry the report as overstepping the office’s authority, social media posts on Monday described an apparent standoff at the Copyright Office between Capitol Police and men rumored to be with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
A source familiar with the matter told Wired that the men were actually “Brian Nieves, who claimed he was the new deputy librarian, and Paul Perkins, who said he was the new acting director of the Copyright Office, as well as acting Registrar,” but it remains “unclear whether the men accurately identified themselves.” A spokesperson for the Capitol Police told Wired that no one was escorted off the premises or denied entry to the office.
Perlmutter’s firing followed Donald Trump’s removal of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who, NPR noted, was the first African American to hold the post. Responding to public backlash, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that the firing was due to “quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children.”
Source Links: Copyright Office head fired after reporting AI training isn’t always fair use – Ars Technica
#AITraining #ArsTechnica #FairUse #Fired #Head #Librarian #Trump #USCopyrightOffice
Search Engine Journal: U.S. Copyright Office Cites Legal Risk At Every Stage Of Generative AI . “The United States Copyright Office released a pre-publication version of a report on the use of copyrighted materials for training generative AI, outlining a legal and factual case that identifies copyright risks at every stage of generative AI development.”
"When Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden last week and Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter over the weekend, it was seen as another move driven by the tech wing of the Republican Party — especially in light of the Copyright Office releasing a pre-publication report saying some kinds of generative AI training would not be considered fair use. And when two men showed up at the Copyright Office inside the Library of Congress carrying letters purporting to appoint them to acting leadership positions, the DOGE takeover appeared to be complete.
But those two men, Paul Perkins and Brian Nieves, were not DOGE at all, but instead approved by the MAGA wing of the Trump coalition that aims to put tech companies in check.
Perkins, now the supposed acting Register of Copyrights, is an eight-year veteran of the DOJ who served in the first Trump administration prosecuting fraud cases. Nieves, the putative acting deputy librarian, is currently at the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, having previously been a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee, where he worked with Rep. Jim Jordan on Big Tech investigations. And Todd Blanche, the putative Acting Librarian of Congress who would be their boss, is a staunch Trump ally who represented him during his 2024 Manhattan criminal trial, and is now the Deputy Attorney General overseeing the DOJ’s side in the Google Search remedies case. As one government affairs lobbyist told The Verge, Blanche is “there to stick it to tech.”"
https://www.theverge.com/politics/666179/maga-elon-musk-sacks-copyright-office-perlmutter
"Two men claiming to be newly appointed Trump administration officials tried to enter the US Copyright Office in Washington, DC, on Monday, but left before gaining access to the building, sources tell WIRED. Their appearance comes days after the White House fired the director of the copyright office, Shira Perlmutter, who had held the job since 2020. Perlmutter was removed from her post on Saturday, one day after the agency released a report that raised concerns about the legality in certain cases of using copyrighted materials to train artificial intelligence.
A source familiar with the matter tells WIRED that the two men who tried to enter the Copyright Office showed security at the building a document stating that they had been appointed by the White House to new roles within the office. The source identified the men as Brian Nieves, who claimed he was the new deputy librarian, and Paul Perkins, who said he was the new acting director of the Copyright Office, as well as acting register.
After this article was published, the Department of Justice confirmed to WIRED that Nieves and Perkins had been appointed to lead the Copyright Office. Both are both currently high-ranking officials at the DOJ. The Justice Department declined to comment about whether the two officials attempted to enter the Copyright Office on Monday. The White House did not respond to a request for comment."
https://www.wired.com/story/us-copyright-office-trump-takeover/
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence – U. S. Copyright Office – Copyright.gov
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Since launching an initiative in early 2023, the Copyright Office has been examining the copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence (AI), including the scope of copyright in AI-generated works and the use of copyrighted materials in AI training. After hosting public listening sessions and webinars, the Office published a notice of inquiry in the Federal Register in August 2023, which received over 10,000 comments by December 2023.
The Office is issuing a Report in several Parts analyzing the issues, which will be published as they are completed and linked below.
Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence analyzes copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence (AI). This Report is being issued in three Parts. Part 1 was published on July 31, 2024, and addresses the topic of digital replicas. Part 2 was published on January 29, 2025, and addresses the copyrightability of outputs created using generative AI. On May 9, 2025, the Office released a pre-publication version of Part 3 in response to congressional inquiries and expressions of interest from stakeholders. A final version of Part 3 will be published in the near future, without any substantive changes expected in the analysis or conclusions.Editor’s Note: The documents are online, but I also included them here at the end.
Read more: Copyright and Artificial Intelligence – U. S. Copyright Office – Copyright.govSource Links: Copyright and Artificial Intelligence | U.S. Copyright Office
Documents:
Part 1: Digital Replicas – https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-1-Digital-Replicas-Report.pdf
Part 2: Copyrightability – https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf
Part 3: Generative AI Training (Prepublication) – https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-3-Generative-AI-Training-Report-Pre-Publication-Version.pdf
#AI #artificialIntelligence #Congress #CopyrightOffice #Firings #Report #ShiraPerlmutter #Trump #USCopyrightOffice
Trump reportedly fires head of US copyright office after release of AI report – The Guardian
Dismissal of Shira Perlmutter follows firing of librarian of Congress, which oversees copyright office
Editor’s Note: Links to the AI report are included in my re-post…
Shira Perlmutter published a report about who artificial intelligence technology could run afoul of fair use law, days before her reported dismissal. Photograph: Mariam Zuhaib / APTrump reportedly fires head of US copyright office after release of AI report
Dismissal of Shira Perlmutter follows firing of librarian of Congress, which oversees copyright officeBy José Olivares
Mon 12 May 2025 10.46 EDTThe Trump administration reportedly fired the head of the US copyright office over the weekend – within days of the dismissed official having published a report about how the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology could run afoul of fair use law.
The sacking of Shira Perlmutter as the register of copyrights and director of the copyrights office on Saturday, as reported by the Washington Post and NBC News, came two days after Donald Trump fired the librarian of Congress, who oversees the copyright office.
Perlmutter took over the copyrights office in 2020, and some of her employees suspect her firing may stem from her recent report on how using copyrighted material to train AI tech could overstep laws governing fair use, according to the Post’s reporting.
The New York congressman Joe Morelle, a Democrat, also speculated that Perlmutter’s report may have motivated the Trump administration to fire her, calling her dismissal a “brazen, unprecedented power grab”.
The report from Perlmutter was not highly critical of the use of AI, saying the copyright office believed “government intervention would be premature at this time”.
Editor’s Note: The Copyright and AI report is here: https://www.copyright.gov/ai/ ..a brief introduction, then links to the three (3) parts released so far.
Source Links: Trump reportedly fires head of US copyright office after release of AI report | Trump administration | The Guardian
#AI #AIReport #artificialIntelligence #Firing #Head #Ideas #Research #RightWing #Study #Trump #USCopyrightOffice
Copyright Office head fired after reporting AI training isn’t always fair use https://arstechni.ca/DEhPM #ArtificialIntelligence #USCopyrightOffice #generativeai #DonaldTrump #copyright #chatbots #fairuse #Policy #openai #AI
Trump Fires Top Copyright Official Days After Terminating Librarian of Congress https://petapixel.com/2025/05/12/trump-fires-top-copyright-official-days-after-terminating-librarian-of-congress/ #libraryofcongress #uscopyrightoffice #presidenttrump #copyright #politics #trump #News #Law #law
US Copyright Office found AI companies breach copyright. Its boss was fired
https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/us_copyright_office_ai_copyright/
#HackerNews #USCopyrightOffice #AICopyright #Breach #FiredAI #CopyrightLaw
Things are so crazy right now that I'm not even sure if this is a good or a bad thing to happen... :-D
"Morelle speculated that there was "surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models," in reference to the report released by the Copyright Office this week.
Last month, Musk took to his social media platform X to seemingly express support for the abolition of intellectual property laws. Musk also owns AI startup xAI, with which in February he submitted a failed bid to purchase OpenAI, the company that operates ChatGPT.
Mr. Trump has been a major proponent of AI. Immediately after taking office, he announced a joint venture involving OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle that will invest up to $500 billion in private sector money to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The U.S. Copyright Office, which has a staff of approximately 450 people, is a department of the Library of Congress. It is tasked with registering copyright claims, recording copyright ownership information and administering copyright law, among other things."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fires-director-of-u-s-copyright-office-shira-perlmutter-sources/
#USA #Trump #Copyright #USCopyrightOffice #AI #GenerativeAI #AITraining #BigTech
Mashable: U.S. Copyright Office has registered 1,000+ works enhanced by AI. “A January 2025 report from the Office stated that hundreds of AI-enhanced works had been registered, a spokesperson for the U.S. Copyright Office told Mashable. Now, we know that more than 1,000 such works have been registered.”
Leaders in the generative AI world are daring to say the unsayable: that copyright is not sacrosanct
For the last hundred years or so, the prevailing dogma has been that copyright is an unalloyed good, and that more of it is better. Whether that was ever true is one question, but it is certainly not the case since we entered the digital era, for reasons explained at length in Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available). Despite that fact, recent attempts to halt the constant […]
#aiActionPlan #Amazon #china #deezer #elonMusk #exceptions #fairUse #google #jackDorsey #lobbyists #musicStreaming #openai #patents #stockImageLibraries #tdm #trademarks #US #usCopyrightOffice
YouTube Apparently Unsure If Shakespeare Is In The Public Domain
This is the First-Ever AI Image to Be Granted Copyright Protection https://petapixel.com/2025/02/12/this-is-the-first-ever-ai-image-to-be-granted-copyright-protection-a-slice-of-american-cheese/ #uscopyrightoffice #copyrightoffice #generativeai #Technology #protection #copyright #aiimage #invoke #News
Copyright madness: YouTube seems to doubt whether Shakespeare is in the public domain
One of the darker threads of Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) is how complex copyright enforcement systems can be abused, for example by sending Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests for material that is perfectly legal. A recent post on the Public Citizen blog offers an extreme example of this blight. Here’s the summary of what happened:
When […]
#counternotice #dmca #google #infringement #nonProfit #publicDomain #registration #shakespeare #takedown #usCopyrightOffice #youtube
US Copyright Office clarifies AI-generated content rules: New report outlines copyright rules for AI-generated works, focusing on human authorship. https://ppc.land/us-copyright-office-clarifies-ai-generated-content-rules/ #Copyright #AIGeneratedContent #IntellectualProperty #CopyrightLaw #USCopyrightOffice
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