enoughalready.com

Washington Mutual Inc., the parent company of Ahmanson Land Co., has threatened to sue two groups that oppose its proposed 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch development over their use of the Web site addresses ahmansonranch.com, ahmanson.org and ahmanson-ranch.com.

In the meantime, Washington Mutual has registered the Internet domain namesaveahmansonranch.com as well as stopahmansonranch.com and even the namefriendsofahmansonranch.com, which the director of Friends of Ahmanson Ranch--one of the groups threatened with the lawsuit--discovered when he tried to set up a Web site with that address.

May we suggest a few alternative domain names? Thisistoosilly.com and kidsstopfighting.com come to mind.

Washington Mutual officials insist that their lawsuit is all about protecting their “brand name,” not silencing their critics.

It’s true that the courts are full of lawsuits seeking to protect names and trademarks. But in the court of public opinion, Southern Californians don’t look kindly on this Seattle-based company laying sole claim to the name of the entrepreneur and philanthropist whose moniker can be found on dozens of local buildings, foundations, grants and awards.

So enough already. The case is set for arbitration next month. What if the two sides simply agree to swap domain names? Washington Mutual gets the name of its development, the critics get a name that clearly spells out their opposition. The rest of us get an end to this nonsense.