13th Feburary 2010
ECCO Responds to Gilroy ‘Ezi’ Hall

In Thursday’s issue of The VOICE Newspaper Gilroy ‘Ezi’ Hall expressed his disappointment with the Eastern Caribbean Copyright Organization (ECCO) in an article entitled “Is ECCO Another Cart Before The Horse?”
Here is the response to Hall’s article by Steve Etienne of ECCO:
Cart before the Horse? This would only appear to be so to someone who is obviously looking into a mirror and seeing himself and the world backwards rather than the reality around him.
ECCO is the only successful organisation involving musicians in St. Lucia presently and being the only game in town it would appear that our preoccupation with self destruction which is usually only fuelled by ego and envy could cause uncalled for damage and disruption to a legally well founded and successful St. Lucia based organisation.
Whilst I don’t intend to get into further public dialogue on issues, which should be dealt with in house, a membership organisation washing its dirty linen in public is not to the members’ or the organization’s benefit.
I feel compelled however to deflect some of the derogatory criticism and incorrect information being put in the public domain. Especially when present board members should have been thanked and congratulated for their efforts in bringing the organization to the status it now enjoys particularly as their time and efforts have been gratis.
Firstly, the transition from HMS to ECCO was and is still gradual as we are not a huge corporation that can invest huge sums of money into such a venture. We are duty bound in the first instance to ensure our books are balanced and there is surplus revenue for paying royalties to our members annually.
Members are all aware of the change from HMS to ECCO and PR to our clients has been more than adequate, even without the input of the writer of your article. PR was never the key element, but ECCO is already nearly a household name in the short period of its existence.