Can I use video clips in a school presentation?

I am a freshman in college and am planning on doing a presentation soon. I want to use a couple of short video clips in the presentation to help make my point. Do copyright laws permit me to do this?
Thank you, Ron, for your answer. It seems to me that you are indicating that as I am not distributing copies, it will be legal. The reason for my concern is not so much to evade possible legal action as it is that I just don’t want to do anything wrong for moral issues. Thank you.

Maybe. It’s impossible to answer this question in the abstract because copyright infringement is a VERY fact-specific determination. Even given the same set of facts, two different judges/juries can come to two different conclusions.

That being said, if you’re simply doing a class presentation that is probably only shown to a few students in your class, why are you worried about copyright law as a practical matter? Do you think one of the students is the copyright owner of the video clip who will sue you? Do you think the copyright owner will invest thousands of dollars to sue a college freshman with probably no money for what is likely to be little or no damages?

I guess I don’t see what you’re worrying about for simply a class presentation. Now if you’re planning on distributing thousands upon thousands of copies of your presentation, then that’s a different story.