Getty Images lost a $3.7 billion merger this year. Then came worse news. Three weeks later it filed for bankruptcy56.
Its lawyers still went to court this week, standing before the Court of Appeal in London on Nov. 11, 2026. Getty wants three judges to rule that Stability AI broke copyright law.
The claim rests on one detail. Stability AI's model reduces every photo to statistical weights, a different thing from a stored copy14.
A Theory the Trial Judge Already Rejected
Getty sued Stability AI in 2023. It accused the London firm of copying millions of Getty and iStock photos to build Stable Diffusion4.
The case shrank fast. Getty dropped one claim early, arguing that training itself broke UK law. The training happened abroad, though, so the claim failed before trial even started.
Getty dropped a database-rights claim too. Only two claims reached the twelve-day trial, which opened June 9, 20254.
Mrs Justice Joanna Smith ruled on Nov. 4, 2025. She found that Stable Diffusion's weights hold trained parameters in place of stored photos. The model falls short, she wrote, of an infringing copy under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Getty won one narrow point: older versions of the software infringed Getty's trademark4.
Getty's Appeal Lands 372 Days After Its First Loss
Dated steps in Getty Images v Stability AI, from the 2025 trial to the Court of Appeal hearing
Each filled pin marks one dated step the courts have already taken; the outlined pin is the judgment still ahead.
The 2027 date is an estimate; the Court of Appeal has yet to set a fixed date for its ruling.
Sources: City A.M. [1]; Latham & Watkins [4]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 9, 2025 | 12-day trial opens |
| Nov. 4, 2025 | High Court ruling |
| Nov. 11, 2026 | Court of Appeal hearing |
| 2027 | Judgment expected |
Judges then granted a narrow appeal. Can a model trained abroad still count as an infringing copy once it enters Britain? It holds only trained weights, after all, and zero photo files. Getty Images told the panel this week that Stability AI "wants to divorce what was done with the copyright works from the act of the model training, but it can only do that by mischaracterising the facts"1.
Stability Answers With a Cake
Its lawyers disagree, plainly. They reached for a kitchen comparison. A finished cake, they argued, sits apart from its recipe. Baking it still required following every step someone may have photographed first2.
Their written case reads plainer than the cake line. "Whether something is a copy depends on what is actually produced, not on how it was developed," Stability AI argued2.
Getty's reading would create a strange rule, the company warned. Importing the finished model into Britain would break the law. Copying that same model once it already sat on a British server would stay legal.
Stability AI's broader point reaches past this one case. "Extending the law to AI models trained overseas is a matter for Parliament, not the courts," the company told the judges2. Parliament has debated AI and copyright for three years and left the statute book untouched on this exact question.
A Bankrupt Company's Last Theory
Getty filed for Chapter 11 protection on Oct. 21, 2026, in Delaware. The Getty family and Koch Equity Development stepped in. Together they agreed to put up to $533 million into the company. Both will own the company once the restructuring closes5.
The rescue sum trails far behind the Shutterstock deal it replaced. Getty and Shutterstock had agreed to merge for $3.7 billion, seven times the size of the new rescue money56.
Britain's competition regulator set one condition for its approval: Shutterstock had to sell its news and celebrity photo business first. Getty's board flatly rejected that condition, and the $3.7 billion merger died on July 7, 20266.
Getty's Rescue Financing Is 86 Percent Smaller Than Its Lost Merger
Dollar value of Getty Images' collapsed Shutterstock merger and its Chapter 11 rescue equity, 2026
The first column is the merger that collapsed in July; the second is the new equity the Getty family and Koch Equity Development are putting into the bankruptcy.
Sources: CNBC [5]; Engadget [6]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Shutterstock deal | $3.70B |
| Rescue equity | $0.53B |
Line the two numbers up and the rescue financing lands 86 percent smaller than the lost merger56. Beating Stability AI in court would leave that funding gap exactly where it sits. A win would still answer one big question: does a model trained outside Britain answer to a UK court at all?
Music Labels Are Watching Too
The British Phonographic Industry represents UK record labels, and it won permission to intervene on Getty's side2. Its lawyers see the same loophole reaching music next. Suno and Udio train their models the same way Stability AI trained Stable Diffusion.
Read the filing closely, though. BPI hedges its own point. The trade body says this case settles one narrow question only. Whether a model generally stores a copy of its training data depends on that model's own design3.
One intellectual property partner went further still. The partner said a Getty win here would land as "pyrrhic," since it would settle only where training happened. Whether training itself infringes, a deeper question than this appeal asks, would wait for a later case7.
Stability AI's founder once stood at its center. Emad Mostaque stepped down as chief executive in March 2024. He left the company's board the same month. The lawyers arguing this week work for a company that moved on from him more than two and a half years ago.
What to Do
Start here. A photographer or illustrator should ask one question first: where does my agency actually file its AI disputes? The ruling turns entirely on jurisdiction, a fact a creator rarely sees in a licensing contract.
Musicians and labels should read this UK ruling too, even watching the Suno and Udio cases from America. BPI thinks the same reasoning could travel in reverse, into any country weighing whether training conducted abroad still counts at home. Ask your own publisher which court would actually hear a claim like this one.
By the Numbers
- $3.7 billion: value of the Getty-Shutterstock merger. It collapsed July 7, 2026, after UK regulators demanded a sale of Shutterstock's editorial unit6.
- $533 million: new equity the Getty family and Koch Equity Development are putting into Getty's Chapter 11 rescue5.
- Twelve days: length of the June 2025 trial, after Getty dropped its training and database claims4.
- 372: days between the High Court's Nov. 4, 2025, ruling and the Court of Appeal hearing on Nov. 11, 202641.
- One: the single surviving theory from Getty's original case, out of the claims it first filed4.
- 2027: year the Court of Appeal expects to rule2.
What to Watch
Mark the date. The Court of Appeal's ruling lands sometime in early 2027. A Getty win would force every AI company to track something new. Where do its training servers actually sit, beyond where its users are?
Another loss would send a clear message. A UK copyright claim needs training done on British soil, wherever that company calls home.
Sources
- Rosie Harris-Davison, "Getty Images faces London AI firm in court," City A.M., Nov. 11, 2026, https://www.cityam.com/getty-images-faces-london-ai-firm-in-court/
- Harry Jewson, "Getty Images v Stability AI – Court of Appeal hearing," Burges Salmon, Nov. 12, 2026, https://www.burges-salmon.com/articles/102o9ee/getty-images-v-stability-ai-court-of-appeal-hearing/
- Cerys Wyn Davies and Gill Dennis, "Why Getty's appeal won't address all UK AI copyright questions," Pinsent Masons, Nov. 9, 2026, https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/analysis/getty-appeal-wont-address-all-uk-ai-copyright-questions
- Sophie Goossens and Brett Shandler, "Getty Images v. Stability AI: English High Court Rejects Secondary Copyright Claim," Latham & Watkins, Nov. 13, 2025, https://www.lw.com/en/insights/getty-images-v-stability-ai-english-high-court-rejects-secondary-copyright-claim
- CNBC, "Getty Images files for bankruptcy, advances restructuring plan," CNBC, Oct. 21, 2026, https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/21/getty-images-files-for-bankruptcy-advances-restructuring-plan.html
- Steve Dent, "Getty Images is canceling its $3.7 billion Shutterstock merger due to UK restrictions," Engadget, July 1, 2026, https://www.engadget.com/2205695/getty-images-canceling-shutterstock-merger-uk-restrictions/
- Solicitors Journal, "Getty Images case likely to disappoint," Solicitors Journal, Nov. 10, 2026, https://www.solicitorsjournal.com/sjarticle/getty-images-case-likely-to-disappoint
