Somebody copied my thumbnail design :(

I don't think this is a thing but I'm pretty sure you can report it for copyright/stealing but that may be only for videos. Also since this is already happened I suggest playing for the future, do a video like (how many subs you have) THUMBNAIL RELEASED then giveaway it as a thank you and design a new one that has your personality in it either it being your skin (mine craft) your face being it/logo. Soemthing that means you and really can't be copied. But the reason why I said I've the thumbnail away is it just doesn't lye and that away but you can let your users be more like you, while you still have your updated 2.0 thumbnail
 
A channel gets acknowledgement based on the total package, deliver this, and hold yourself accountable to yourself alone. Don't worry about others even if they are taking shortcuts off of your work. It doesn't effect you as much as you may think.
 
Your channel isn't the first channel I've seen using that shape, and something as simple and common as a shape being re-used after you see it looking good on someone else's videos isn't really copying. On YouTube this is even more the case because you're basically forced to use a rectangular design of some kind or lose out on space for your text/image - which basically leaves you with: Standard thumbnail, thumbnail with a border, or thumbnail with the sides pulled in somehow.

Honestly I think you should be happy someone else decided to use that shape. That means someone saw that shape and thought "Hey that looks good". There is zero way them using that shape can affect you negatively anyway. Yes if the colours AND shape were similar then someone might mistake your videos for his or vice versa and I could potentially see there being a reason to ask him if he'd change it - but he's using different colours, so him using the shape isn't going to impact you in any way and shouldn't bother you.

Yeah he had less work to do because he didn't have to think of the idea himself, but if everyone had to think of an entirely new idea themselves no-one would even be able to have thumbnails any more because all the most interesting concepts have been done already time and time again. Try not to worry about people making similar thumbnails or content etc to you if they aren't directly stealing anything - it's where most of our ideas come from, we see something cool, and we either do something similar, or get a new idea from it. Those ideas don't just pop out of nowhere, even the things we think were just random ideas we based on our previous experiences and things we'd seen before.

Anyway your design is nice, I think you should personally be happy if someone else decides to use a similar design - that means it's good. The chances of there ever being any direct competition with someone who is using a similar design to you are slim to none either way. :)
 
You could block the person from your channel whether that would work I don't know but its just a thought, or place a watermark on your Thumbnails
 
Tranxify said:
I know how bad it feels to see someone copying your content or ideas. Just take the good part of it and know that you have great content and thumbnails! Keep it up!
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I agree with Tranxify, if someone copied your thumbnails then they are clearly good. I checked your channel out and i'm very impressed, keep up the good work! I'd stick with your thumbnails for now man :)
 
I'd be somewhat furious myself if I was you because it's so hard to brand crate a brand that's something memorable to your viewers and reminds them of you. But you also have to realise, it's a simple shape, technically you didn't really pick anything unique, if you somehow came up with a completely new shape unseen before maybe you'd have something bigger to be worried about, this is going to happen though. If it were me, I'd have focused my efforts on another area of branding that's easier to make unique, like a logo/avatar, thumbnail designs are something that's too easy to rip off however unique they may be, hence why I stuck to a fairly generic design that many have used but also because I'm terrible at making them.

The way I look at it, this is a bit hit and miss. You've got a thumbnail that now stands out, but everyone's going to want to use that style (it's the same with clothing, look at the horrible skinny jean fad) which is of course going to take away some of your uniqueness but on the + side if you were to grow more and more above these other channels, people who might come across those channels might also be reminded of yours and in that you've got yourself some branding that works for itself.
 
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