While I love your blog tynan, I have a question for twitter: Since when did it become ok to get someone else's twitter handle just due to inactivity? And if the change occurred in only five minutes, was there any warning to the existing user?

Domain names operate on a principle where you pay for your name every year, and get several warning emails that you will lose your account if you fail to pay.

Edit: read JCS's post, makes sense as long as they clearly state how inactive you must be. That said, could you get kicked off of twitter if you merely use it to "lurk" your friend's protected tweets?