Creation of ECCO
COTT Helps Lead The Way In The Oecs
ECCO ready to resonate across the Eastern Caribbean
The Hewanorra Musical Society (HMS) held its Annual General Meeting on September 15, 2008 at the Cultural Development Foundation, Castries, St. Lucia. Following presentations made by Management, Directors and Regional colleagues (including COTT’s President Lutalo Masimba and CEO Allison Demas), an enthusiastic and passionate debate amongst members ensued. The end result being a unanimous vote for the adoption of resolutions leading to the creation of ECCO; the Eastern Caribbean Copyright Organization for Music Rights Incorporated.
HMS will therefore change its name to ECCO effective 1st January 2009. The new entity which will be headed by the current HMS General Manager, Steve Etienne, will have its head office in St. Lucia with agents, directors and members from each Eastern Caribbean Territory.
ECCO will not only have a larger music licensing and membership base; additional rights will be administered including rights for Performers (of copyright protected music) and Producers of sound recordings.
The expansion of HMS into ECCO is the end result of intense lobbying and negotiations between the Management Committee of Caribbean Copyright Link ("CCL") and the management of the international department of the UK based Performing Right Society ("PRS") over a period spanning nearly 2 years. In July 2008 PRS finally agreed to relinquish control over performing rights administration in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, BVI, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts-Nevis and St. Vincent & the Grenadines. PRS will hand over its licensing mandate in these territories to ECCO on January 1, 2009.
The plans for the operations of ECCO were presented by executives of CCL (including Allison Demas, Chair of CCL's Management Committee) at a consultation held in Grenada on October 4. Braving the inclement weather, Grenada’s music fraternity attended the consultation and readily embraced the plans for the established of an ECCO agency in Grenada. A local steering committee was elected and the Chairman is COTT member Elwin McQuilkin ("Wizard", several times Grenada's Calypso Monarch), who will serve on the ECCO board of directors as Grenada's representative. Grenada's progressive Minister of Youth Empowerment, Culture and Sports, Sen. The Hon. Arley Gill, a cultural enthusiast and Attorney-at-Law, opened the consultation, stayed for the entire day's proceedings and demonstrated his government's promise of tangible support for ECCO.
A major sensitizing campaign is being planned across the Eastern Caribbean to ensure creators and users of music as well as the general public understand the role of the organization and the part each has to play in the development of a regional music industry.
Reproduced from COTT - press release
ECCO ready to resonate across the Eastern Caribbean
The Hewanorra Musical Society (HMS) held its Annual General Meeting on September 15, 2008 at the Cultural Development Foundation, Castries, St. Lucia. Following presentations made by Management, Directors and Regional colleagues (including COTT’s President Lutalo Masimba and CEO Allison Demas), an enthusiastic and passionate debate amongst members ensued. The end result being a unanimous vote for the adoption of resolutions leading to the creation of ECCO; the Eastern Caribbean Copyright Organization for Music Rights Incorporated.
HMS will therefore change its name to ECCO effective 1st January 2009. The new entity which will be headed by the current HMS General Manager, Steve Etienne, will have its head office in St. Lucia with agents, directors and members from each Eastern Caribbean Territory.
ECCO will not only have a larger music licensing and membership base; additional rights will be administered including rights for Performers (of copyright protected music) and Producers of sound recordings.
The expansion of HMS into ECCO is the end result of intense lobbying and negotiations between the Management Committee of Caribbean Copyright Link ("CCL") and the management of the international department of the UK based Performing Right Society ("PRS") over a period spanning nearly 2 years. In July 2008 PRS finally agreed to relinquish control over performing rights administration in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, BVI, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts-Nevis and St. Vincent & the Grenadines. PRS will hand over its licensing mandate in these territories to ECCO on January 1, 2009.
The plans for the operations of ECCO were presented by executives of CCL (including Allison Demas, Chair of CCL's Management Committee) at a consultation held in Grenada on October 4. Braving the inclement weather, Grenada’s music fraternity attended the consultation and readily embraced the plans for the established of an ECCO agency in Grenada. A local steering committee was elected and the Chairman is COTT member Elwin McQuilkin ("Wizard", several times Grenada's Calypso Monarch), who will serve on the ECCO board of directors as Grenada's representative. Grenada's progressive Minister of Youth Empowerment, Culture and Sports, Sen. The Hon. Arley Gill, a cultural enthusiast and Attorney-at-Law, opened the consultation, stayed for the entire day's proceedings and demonstrated his government's promise of tangible support for ECCO.
A major sensitizing campaign is being planned across the Eastern Caribbean to ensure creators and users of music as well as the general public understand the role of the organization and the part each has to play in the development of a regional music industry.
Reproduced from COTT - press release
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