Is it possible to save clips from Youtube? I'd like to use some footage I found on there...

A while back I used some software called Tubesock. I think it worked OK.
Copyright applies to YouTube the same as it does anywhere else of course.
I did get the owner's permission to use the footage that I downloaded.

While I don't normally advocate this sort of thing, I recently had the need to do this to analyze some video in my NLE. I tried a few different programs but had exceptional results from this one:

Free software: video converter, ipod converter, mp4 converter (http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video-software.htm)

I recently had the same issue where we needed to grab an embedded video from a site for a possible legal case and used Firefox with an add on. You can find it on the Mozilla site https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

savevid.com

I've use Relay Media Catcher (get time-limited demo from here (http://applian.com/replay-media-catcher/demo.php)) and it does a good job with grabbing the source video file from YouTube as well as other sites.

Very handy for getting me out of a tight spot.

Andrew

Download Online Videos Save Direct Easily - Savevid.com (http://www.savevid.com/)

This is one of the best out there......

The "all-intrusive" Real Player has this option. Wherever there is video on a website, a small inscription appears next to it "save this video to your hard drive" or something like that (I no longer use Real Player).

Yes, tragically, it involves the pestilence of Real Player.

I believe one of the best things you can do for the greater good of society is to convert any remaining content (in the Real Video / Real Audio format) to another format.

Andrew

Agreed on the "pestilence" part. However, when it saves stuff off the internet, it saves in the original format - it does not convert to Real Media.

They must have repented. :-P

Andrew