I have a DVD which has a video of me and my friend performing someplace and I'd like to download it so I can put it on YouTube. This is a "home video" so it's not illegal for me to do this since it's my video on some DVD someone bought at Staples. Which programs would you suggest (free)? Thanks!

handbrake.fr

If they are home videos, then they lack any encryption and you can just straight up copy the .vob files off the disc to your computer. This can then be converted using the likes of http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ to an AVI file

This is a very tricky topic to discuss on the forums. Thus far everyone has treated the topic with care, and I'm responding here primarily to remind anyone else jumping into this topic to maintain this. Promoting media piracy is sufficient for an automatic ban, and quite a lot of the DVD copying software out there is sketchy at best.