A major Hollywood crew union has weighed in on the White House’s abrupt firing of U.S. Copyright Office head Shira Perlmutter on Saturday following the pre-publication of a report on AI, saying it is “deeply concerned” over the dismissal and Perlmutter should be reinstated.
IATSE, a union that represents an array of behind-the-scenes workers in film and television, from costume designers to animators to cinematographers, said the termination “does not appear to be lawful or legitimate” as Perlmutter is hired by the legislative, rather than the executive, branch.
“Shira Perlmutter has served with distinction as Register of Copyrights and she must be reinstated at the behest of Congress,” the union continued.
While the White House has not yet given a rationale for the decision, observers have drawn attention to the fact that Perlmutter’s dismissal came one day after her office released a prepublication report that suggested the training of AI models on copywritten materials may not be considered “fair use,” as AI companies have argued.
“Making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them in existing markets, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries,” the report stated.
The crew union raised particular concerns about this timing. “This is a developing situation, and whether in fact Perlmutter’s firing was in retaliation for releasing the AI report is unclear. However, it wouldn’t surprise us to learn that tech billionaires are wielding their influence to interfere in our government for their own financial benefit,” the union proclaimed.
Though the training of AI tools on their work has recently been a major concern for Hollywood creatives, IATSE is only the second Hollywood labor group to weigh in on these events and is the first major union to do so. The American Federation of Musicians, some of whose members work on film and television projects, has stated that Perlmutter’s exit will “gravely harm the entire copyright community.”
In its statement IATSE additionally praised the U.S. Copyright Office’s Friday report on AI, saying the prepublished document “echoes IATSE’s position that tech billionaires and AI developers cannot circumvent established U.S. copyright law and commit intellectual property theft by scraping the internet for copyrighted works to train their models without permission from rightsholders.”
According to the union, “The theft of copyrighted works – domestically and internationally – threatens our hard-won health care benefits and retirement security.”
The critique of Perlmutter’s dismissal arrives as the union is simultaneously working with a coalition of industry groups to woo the White House over policies that could boost domestic entertainment production. After actor and “special ambassador” to Hollywood Jon Voight and his team met with industry stakeholders to develop a plan to improve the state of U.S. production, Pres. Donald Trump seized on one of their suggestions — tariffs — and posted about implementing “100% tariffs” on films produced abroad on May 4.
After some initial scrambling, industry groups including IATSE and the studio coalition the Motion Picture Association (as well as second “special ambassador” Sylvester Stallone) responded with a united front on Monday, suggesting Trump back some tax incentive options in a reconciliation package being developed by Congress.
IATSE had previously struck a cautious note on the tariffs idea, raising concerns for potential consequences for its members in Canada.
