Copyright Policy

1. Ownership of Thumbnails

When creators design custom thumbnails for their YouTube videos, they own the original copyright in those images (provided the components do not infringe on other protected works).

2. Acceptable Uses for Downloaded Thumbnails

• Own Content Management: Recovering high-resolution thumbnails for your own videos when original assets were lost.
• Fair Use Commentary & Critique: Using a thumbnail in a video review, critique, or reaction video under statutory fair use doctrine.
• Design Inspiration & Study: Analyzing color balance, font choices, and CTR patterns for educational research.
• Offline Archiving: Personal reference and academic archiving.

3. Prohibited Infringing Uses

You may NOT take another creator's thumbnail and use it as your own custom thumbnail on your video without their written consent. Doing so violates copyright law and YouTube's impersonation and metadata policies.