Not every YouTube download is a copyright violation. Often someone you know puts up a video he or she made and invites you to download it to have your own copy. Other people put videos on YouTube hoping that people will download and share them.

I use a couple of different programs for this purpose. The free one is from Real Networks and is called RealDownloader. The program watches your browser for downloadable videos and adds them to a window that lets you download the video with a single click. Simple, effective and free.

The other product I use is called iTubeX and runs only on Mac OS X. There is a trial version but eventually you need to buy it. I can't remember the price.

      - Mark