11th
Feburary 2010
Is ECCO
Another Cart Before The Horse?
By Gilroy “
Ezi” Hall
With
a lack of excitement and no significant publication
of achievements, the Eastern Caribbean Copyright
Organization for Music Rights Incorporated celebrated
the first anniversary of its launch on January
27,2010. As one who was directly involved in
the campaign to move from HMS to ECCO I was
very disappointed especially with the advent
of a full time secretariat and a fully qualified
Communications Officer. The transition from
HMS to ECCO should have been a gradual and well
planned process and the sudden launch in 2009
while I was out of state had me puzzled and
concerned at the time. I was puzzled because
one of the key elements of the proposed transition
was supposed to be a sustained public relations
campaign to prepare members and the wider public
to receive the new entity with the least possible
conflict. The idea was to make ECCO a household
name before the official registration and launch.
The AGM of January 2010 was inundated with surprising
revelations and expressions of discontentment.
I do not have the space to deal with the specifics
but suffice it to say that the only true beneficiaries
of the HMS to ECCO transition seem to be the
office staff and the music pirates. Revenue
collection has been seriously impacted due to
the fact that Grenada is the only other member,
apart from St. Lucia, which has fully legislated
copyright laws. To compound the situation, the
replacement of a revenue collections officer
with a communications genius has ensured that
we don’t have the money for the education
initiatives required but we have acquired the
services of the expert. The loss of revenue
to members is significant and anyone who dares
to challenge this fact can contact me for concrete
evidence at any time. Sitting on the Board of
Directors over the last year were men and women
with invaluable talent and skills but the opportunities
for them to assist in the development process
were never provided.
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