#FreeAllWords: International Text and Translation Fund of the European Writers‘ Council (EWC) gives a voice to authors from Belarus and Ukraine
Defending copyright is not a crime!
EWC supports the Statement by the U.S. The Authors Guild on Trump‘s unlawful firing of U.S. Copyright Office‘s Director
To the Statement by the Authors Guild
We see Mr Trump’s unlawful aggression against Shira Perlmutter, a long-standing, reliable and balanced official, leading a key institution tasked with defending copyright, cultural preservation, and the rights of authors and artists, and shortly after the unlawful firing of Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, as yet another worrying sign of a political agenda of destruction that deliberately attacks the structures of education, culture and freedom of expression through censorship, intimidation and malice.
The EWC supports the call by the Authors Guild on the U.S. Congress to intervene immediately against this unjustified dismissal of Ms Shira Perlmutter and Dr. Carla Hayden, and protect the values of democracy and human rights.
Join the petition by the U.S. Authors Guild.
Background:
The Trump administration dismissed the head of the US copyright office via a brief e-mail on the week-end 11th of May 2025 – within only one day of the fired CO leader having published the third report about “Copyright and AI”, and about how the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology could run afoul of fair use law. The firing of Shira Perlmutter happened two days after Donald Trump had also fired the librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden, who oversees the copyright office.