Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter, reinstated by court order, testified before a Senate panel on AI fair use, foreign piracy, and training-data disclosure.
Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property on May 12, 2026, defending the Copyright Office's position that AI training on copyrighted works qualifies as fair use only in limited circumstances [1]. The appearance was itself legally notable: Perlmutter testified under the protection of a D.C. Circuit injunction that had reinstated her after President Trump fired her from the post, placing her at the witness table under an active legal cloud over her tenure [1].
The oversight hearing convened by the IP Subcommittee drew bipartisan engagement from Sens. Thom Tillis, Adam Schiff, Chris Coons, and Marsha Blackburn, among others [1]. Members examined three intersecting subjects: the Copyright Office's formal AI report, which found that unlicensed AI training on protected works does not categorically qualify as fair use; the Blockbeard Act, a legislative proposal targeting foreign piracy sites; and the CLEAR Act, which would require AI developers to disclose the training data underlying their models [1]. The hearing functioned simultaneously as an oversight session and a preview of potential floor action on all three fronts.
The substantive stakes are significant. The Trump administration has taken the position that AI training does not infringe copyright, a stance that places the executive branch in direct conflict with the Copyright Office's own published analysis [1]. Because the Copyright Office sits within the legislative branch and Perlmutter serves at congressional direction, the administration's effort to remove her, and the D.C. Circuit's decision to block that removal, frames the policy dispute as a separation-of-powers contest as much as a copyright question. Perlmutter's continued presence at the witness table, made possible only by judicial intervention, underscored that constitutional dimension throughout the proceeding.
The hearing positions Congress to move on multiple tracks. Markup or floor consideration of the Blockbeard Act and the CLEAR Act now appears more likely given the bipartisan composition of subcommittee interest [1]. The underlying litigation over Perlmutter's termination remains pending, and its outcome will determine both her continued authority to lead the office and the broader question of whether the executive branch may remove the Register without congressional concurrence. Any appellate ruling in that case would carry immediate consequences for the Copyright Office's operational independence and its ability to enforce the policy positions Perlmutter defended at the hearing.