The General Legal Council (GCL) has warned lawyers, judges and academics who pirate law books and sell to law students to desist from it since it constitutes an offence under sections 42 and 43 of the Copyright Act, 2005 (Act 690).

The Council, in a statement, said it has been receiving complaints regarding the patronage and proliferation of pirated law textbooks on the Ghanaian markets, and is particularly concerned because the textbooks involved are authored by Ghanaian lawyers, judges and academics and their original versions are widely available on the Ghanaian markets.

“Lawyers, law students, the entire legal community and the general public are advised to desist from any form of involvement in such criminal activity including patronage of such books under rule 9 of the legal profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules, 1969 (L613)”, the Council warned, adding: “Criminal convictions for such offence may result in disbarment or disqualification from a call to the bar as the case may be”.

The Council advised members of the legal profession to patronise and rely solely on the original versions of widely available Ghanaian law books in order to avoid any form of complicity in a criminal offence, “particularly one which deprives industrious members of our profession of the fruits of their labour and discourages the much-needed publication of scholarly works required for the advancement of the legal profession and the law in Ghana.”