I know I'm a little late to the party, but I found a decent post on this a while back (josephliu.co/twitter-username-taken). It goes along with what Marc was saying about reporting the account:
Make sure you own the domain name for the username you want (i.e. torus.com if you want @torus)
List that domain as the primary site in your account
File an impersonation form at help.twitter.com/forms/impersonation and include any relevant information; for instance, your website, handles on other social media, etc. The original author even included his driver's license and passport (if you want it that badly)
Twitter will email you with their decision and give you further instructions
I've never tried it myself, but some people in the comments are saying it worked for them. I'd love if they would purge inactive accounts every few years and release the usernames!
I know I'm a little late to the party, but I found a decent post on this a while back (josephliu.co/twitter-username-taken). It goes along with what Marc was saying about reporting the account:
I've never tried it myself, but some people in the comments are saying it worked for them. I'd love if they would purge inactive accounts every few years and release the usernames!