Lisa Alter recently weighed in on former U.S. Copyright Office Director Shira Perlmutter’s abrupt termination in The Hollywood Reporter. In the article, titled “Trump May Hurt Hollywood With Remake of Copyright Office,” Lisa delves into the firing of Perlmutter, which occurred immediately after the office released a report on using copyrighted works to train AI models, pushing back on the fair use loophole.
“The concern that this represents a reprioritization of creators and content developers is very real,” Lisa tells THR of Perlmutter’s removal.
Lisa adds that her termination “suggests an unprecedented break from the decades-long nonpartisan nature of the copyright office,” which could have concerning implications for the first amendment rights of artists and content creators, given that the office could potentially censor certain material by denying copyright protections.
“Shira Perlmutter was a consummate intellectual property scholar, that’s what she did,” Lisa continues. “And if the Library of Congress and Copyright Office are controlled by a right-wing political viewpoint instead, who says copyright protections wouldn’t be denied from material that’s not deemed to be appropriate by the current administration?”