Free Speech Is the Issue
In threatening to sue an anti-development group over the name of its Web site, the developer of the Ahmanson Ranch mini-city is engaging in the cyber equivalent of a SLAPP lawsuit.
SLAPP, or “strategic litigation against public participation,” is a term coined by two Denver University Law School professors to describe a trend in which Americans are increasingly being sued “simply for exercising the right . . . to speak out on public issues.”
Examples include Isuzu Motors Ltd.’s suit against the Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, for a 1996 article rating Isuzu’s Trooper as “not acceptable” for safety reasons, or cattle producers’ suit against TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey for saying on the air that she would not eat hamburgers because of possible contamination of U.S. beef with so-called mad cow disease.
Not everyone has the deep pockets of a talk show host or a publisher, so such litigation, or even its threat, has had a chilling effect on public debate. And that’s the point.
The “prototypical SLAPP situation,” according to Mark Goldowitz, director of the Oakland-based Anti-SLAPP Project, “is when a developer [sues] an environmentalist because he opposes a development.”
Consider, then, that the nonprofit group Save Open Space has been a vocal opponent of the Ahmanson Land Co.’s plans to build 3,050 houses on 2,800 acres in Ventura County along the Los Angeles County line.
Last fall the group set up a Web site with the domain name www.ahmanson.org, which it uses to publicize its battle against the housing project. Not surprisingly, given its oppositional stance, the site does not pull its punches. Last week, for example, the Web site was emblazoned with the headline “Billionaire Bully Bank Trying to Shut Down This Site.” (Ahmanson Land Co. is owned by Washington Mutual Inc.)
A spokesman for Washington Mutual insists that, rather than trying to suppress criticism, the company is protecting its “brand name” in anticipation of advertising all those houses for sale down the road. But in the court of public opinion, Southern Californians are bound to be surprised--astounded!--that this Seattle-based company, which has trademarked the name “Ahmanson Ranch,” lays claim to the name Ahmanson itself.
In 1947 entrepreneur and philanthropist Howard Ahmanson bought the struggling Home Building and Loan Assn. and built it up to be the largest savings and loan in the nation. It grew with Southern California, and the name Ahmanson came to be associated with the region, gracing the Ahmanson Theater (www.taperahmanson.com) in Los Angeles and dozens of other buildings, foundations, grants and awards, from the Ahmanson Biological Imaging Center at UCLA to the Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson Endowment Fund for Arts Education.
In their letter warning Save Open Space to shut down its site, Ahmanson Land Co. lawyers cited trademark infringement, unfair business competition and cyber piracy. It may well be entertaining to watch a court untangle the questions of free speech rights, copyright and trademark laws such cyber suits entail. Does the name Ahmanson qualify as a “famous trademark”? Do the rights of trademark owners invariably trump the rights of individuals? Why would one person’s use of Ahmanson mean business competition while another’s would not? (A Web search for “Ahmanson” turned up 6,249 hits; the domain name www.ahmanson.com itself belongs to special effects technician, prop and model fabricator--and Ahmanson family scion--Robert Hayden Ahmanson.)
Going to court could be especially interesting now that Save Open Space has engaged the pro bono services of Westlake Village attorney Ed Masry of “Erin Brockovich” fame. (So much for shutting up the opposition.)
But a far better approach would be for the Ahmanson Land Co. to back off and let Save Open Space have its say, online and off.
Barring that, we have another suggestion: Change the Ahmanson Ranch project’s name to Washington Mutual Ranch.
