In what is likely to be the first of many such legal battles, an independent news reporter sued YouTube late last week for copyright infringement.

Robert Tur, who covered high-profile news events including the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the freeway chase of O.J. Simpson in 1994, filed suit in U.S. District Court over YouTube’s use of his news clips, citing copyright protection. He is seeking $150,000 per violation. The video-sharing site has said in published reports that the suit is without merit. However, it has removed a clip of L.A. riot footage.

YouTube has faced copyright issues previously, such as when users posted clips from C-SPAN of Stephen Colbert’s roast of President Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner. In that case, C-SPAN asked YouTube to remove the clips and it did. The site posts a notice that says: “YouTube respects the rights of copyright holders and publishers and requires all members to affirm that they hold the copyright or have permission for the content that they upload. If we receive a notice that content infringes another party’s copyright, the member’s account may be terminated and the content will be removed from YouTube.”