News publishers have broadly welcome proposed changes to EU copyright law which would stop search engines such as Google from using their content without paying a fee.

The proposed changes would also place the onus on video sharing sites such as Youtube and Facebook to ensure content is not in breach of copyright before it is placed online. Currently shared videos are only taken down by video-sharing websites if there is a complaint from the publisher.

Critics of the proposed changes say that Google will simply stop listing publishers who demand a fee.