Aoife White

Google attacked a European Union overhaul designed to ensure copyright owners get a fairer share of income, saying the measures would force it to vet text, video and images before they can be shared on its YouTube service.

"This would effectively turn the internet into a place where everything uploaded to the web must be cleared by lawyers before it can find an audience," the search-engine giant said after the European Commission unveiled draft rules that would also allow newspapers to demand payment when services such as Google News run their articles. Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., is already fighting three EU antitrust probes into search, phone software and advertising. If Sept 14's proposals become law, the company may have a weaker hand when dealing with copyright holders, boosted by more powers to withdraw content or demand compensation. EU regulators said they want to protect publishers and creators when their work is made available on the internet, often without remuneration.

Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics avoided fines as European Union antitrust regulators said “patent wars” with Apple shouldn’t allow consumers to get caught in the crossfire.

Motorola Mobility, which Google is selling to Lenovo Group, broke EU antitrust law when it sought and enforced a German legal injunction against Apple over patents for technology for industry-standard products such as mobile phones, the European Commission said. Samsung and the EU finalized a settlement that ends a similar antitrust probe.

Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition chief, said the EU’s decisions provide “legal clarity on the circumstances in which injunctions to enforce standard essential patents can be anti-competitive.”

The EU is cracking down on patent abuses as Motorola Mobility, Microsoft, Apple and Samsung trade victories in courts across the world on intellectual property. Industry-standard technology helps ensure products such as mobile-phone antennas and global-positioning system software can operate together when made by different manufacturers.