In response to User Hoary s topic The term Ebonics and the appearance of a legal threat Ernie Smith writes I maintain that those who view and use the word Ebonics as being a synonym for BE AAVE and other English language based appellations are either totally ignorant of the origin and true meaning of the word Ebonics or they are fully aware of the origin and true meaning of the word Ebonics and elect to use word Ebonics as a synonym for BE AAVE and other English language based appellations with the intent to deceive Since by definition to counterfeit is to try to deceive by pretense or dissembling the propagation of a false definition of the word Ebonics as being a synonym for BE AAVE other English language based appellations with the intent to deceive is larcenous counterfeiting Given that by definition to steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one s own and using a created production without crediting the source is plagiarism or literary theft when use is made of the word Ebonics an original idea and word coined by Dr Robert Williams as a synonym for BE AAVE and other English language based appellations this deceptive pattern of practice is plagiaristic dishonesty or literary theft that violates national and international laws protecting intellectual property rights This kind of plagiarism or stealth of intellectual property via literary theft and the intentional perversion of the truth should not be tolerated and the authors of articles and books as well as publishers of dictionaries including Wikipedia progating counterfeit and plagiaristic definitions of the word Ebonics must be held accountable Kifano S Smith E A 2005 Ebonics and Education in Context of Culture Meeting Language and Cultural Needs of LEP African American Children Edited by J Ramirez et al Buffalo Multilingual Matters Ltd Smith E A 1974 The Evolution and Continuing Presence of the African Oral Tradition In Black Ameica Irvine University of California at Irvine Smith E A 1976 A Case for Bilingual and Bicultural Education for United States Slave Descendants of African Origin Department of Linguistics Seminar Papers Series No 39 Edited By A Kaye and D Sears California State University Fullerton Fullerton Smith E A 1978 Historical Development of Ebonics In The Western Journal of Black Studies Pullman Washington State University Press Smith E A 1993 Black Child In the Schools Ebonics and its Implications for the Transformation of American Education In Bicultural Education Studies In Education Edited by A Darder Claremont Claremont Graduate School Smith E A Crozier K 1998 Ebonics Is Not Black English In The Western Journal of Black Studies Pullman Washington State University Press Smith E A 1993 Cultural and Linguistic Factors in Worker Notification to Blue Collar and No Collar African American Workers In American Journal of Industrial Medicine Edited by Philip J Landrigan Irving J Seliokoff et al New York Wiley Liss Smith E A 2001 Ebonics and Bilingual Education of the African American Child In Ebonics and Language Education of African Ancestry Students Edited by Clinton Crawford Brooklyn Sankofa World Publishers