copyright internet fair-use
Is it legal to use Youtube thumbnails on another website?
<p>Let's say I have a website where each page has an embedded Youtube video, and there are also a list of this web pages, can this list display those video thumbnails as the image of the link to the page that contains the embedded video?</p>

<p>Can those thumbnails be modified in any way?</p>

<p>*Update: Youtube generates four thumbnails for each video ( <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2068344/how-do-i-get-a-youtube-video-thumbnail-from-the-youtube-api">https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2068344/how-do-i-get-a-youtube-video-thumbnail-from-the-youtube-api</a> ) but I couldn't find any reference to them in their Terms of Use )</p>

<p><strong>No</strong>, it is not authorised if the video is not distribute under the Creative Commons license and even if it is, it might not be allowed to access Youtube to only get the first image regarding their terms of service.</p>

<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/static?gl=GB&amp;template=terms" rel="nofollow">terms</a> are very explicit, under the article 5. You can't use the content on the website by another mean that the one explicitly provided by Youtube.</p>

<p>Also (5.1.M), "you shall not copy, <strong>reproduce</strong> [...] or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content."</p>

<p>Please also consider problems related to the YouTube trademark even if its not in the scope of your question.</p>
