Twitter Legal Battles RevisitedTwitter Legal Battles Revisited

Back in January I posted about the potential for legal battles over Twitter account names as squatters began to move in, or in some cases even fraudulently impersonate other individuals or organizations. The concern I had at the time was how the potential legal battles could impact Twitter as a company, and whether or not they could handle the deluge of filings. Today, Twitter's official blog notes that in response to fraudulent account usage they are testing a verified account capability.   

Again, this sort of effort could require a great deal of resources (and indeed Twitter's posting notes that this service will be limited specifically due to resource constraints). I have to wonder if there's an easier way - perhaps a partnership with Verisign or some other way to rely on SSL certificates to enable a trust relationship? Or even a key based on a token on a corporate web site that's linked to a twitter account? I expect you'll see a great deal of input by identity management experts into ways to mitigate this challenge.