Ansip Reiterates Support for ACTA
Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said today that his tin-foil remarks were taken out of context, and that he was only mocking views expressed in one tabloid article, not all ACTA opponents.
"Yes, I regret it. I regret that I did not consider the possibility that any one of my words or sentences could be used in an arbitrary context, taken out of its original context," he said in a statement on February 13, in which he reiterated support for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
The article Ansip criticized appeared in Õhtuleht and claimed that "ACTA gave internet service providers the obligation to track all activities on the internet and punish any copyright violations with a hefty fine or imprisonment without a trial."
The article also referred to concern that seed manufacturers would patent genetic stock and prohibit certain seeds from being sown.
In Parliament on February 9, Ansip quoted from the article and then said that anyone who believed ACTA would mean the end of agriculture "had eaten seeds, and not the kinds of seeds that we sow on our fields."
"Usually, in such cases, if people have such suspicions, putting foil inside their hats might help from time to time."
ACTA opponents seized on the allusion, putting foil outside their hats.
In his statement today, Ansip reiterated his support for ACTA. "To the dismay of many, I still believe that accession to ACTA is a good idea."
"We should consider whether we want to be together with Finland, Sweden and Denmark, who consider counterfeiting wrong," he said. "I would like Estonia to belong to the Nordics."
Kristopher Rikken