Thumbnail editing, legality of monatazation

Crunchmoo

Crunchmoo

I've Got It
So here is a question that just jumped into my mind.

I see many youtubers taking photos off the internet (thanks google images) and editing them for their own needs, then putting them as a video thumbnail, and turning around to monetize the video.
Has anyone ever done research on this topic? I tried but couldn't dig anything up. Thanks
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Tucker
 
A lot of people do this, and I've been wondering too. It is illegal, but I guess unless you're super big it isn't worth fighting it.
 
Crunchmoo said:
So here is a question that just jumped into my mind.

I see many youtubers taking photos off the internet (thanks google images) and editing them for their own needs, then putting them as a video thumbnail, and turning around to monetize the video.
Has anyone ever done research on this topic? I tried but couldn't dig anything up. Thanks
-
Tucker
Click to expand...
On a technicality i don't do what you say, i monetize my video first and once its approved then i upload my custom thumbnail, so technically i monetized the video before the thumbnail was there. If you took an exact picture from the internet and posted it without editing, if the owner wanted to he could ask you to take it down. However with editing i believe its considered fair use and its not like you are making money from the image, you are making money from the video so there is no commercial purpose there either.
 
As far as I'm aware there is no automated system to search for this like there is copyrighted music and video. Unless the copyright owner saw your video and managed to get YouTube to give a crap about it I don't see how it can cause a problem.

p.s. $200 time for VIP woop!
 
It is illegal, however nobody actually checks them and there is no "copyrighted picture" software on YouTube. :)
 
I have always assumed it is fair use to use an image of someone's because on YouTube as a thumbnail, one the page isn't monetized (unless you click on the video but then the thumbnail isn't visible) and two, because Google fought many of these complaints for Google images, etc. and found to be in fair use each time.

Also, YouTube does not allow copyright holders to file a DMCA complaint to remove a thumbnail that is violating your copyright.
 
Actually on the rare occasion I'm looking for images to use for a thumbnail, I usually just use a screenshot of my video or during the game, on the google search settings, I filter it to show ONLY pictures that are free to use, edit, and even allowed to commercialize.
 
I don't think the thumbnails are an issue when it comes to monetization, because there aren't advertisements being put on the thumbnails themselves, if that makes any sense. You see ads when you actually click on the video, but the thumbnails aren't generating any revenue themselves.
 
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