Proof of concept (Score 1)

I came up with this proof-of-concept idea for a similar site to Wikileaks, RecordQuest. I wanted reporters to more widely adopt BitTorrent as a protocol for sharing public records that they get during their reporting. I made a very puny Drupal install, thinking that I was going to work on it after I got my Master's (where I researched the idea). Then I got hired to run a corporate malfeasance wiki called Crocodyl, which has a similar feel, but we haven't gotten BitTorrent implemented yet.

I think a good revenue model could be to charge money for downloads, but offer the BitTorrent download for free. That way you are encouraging the public to use a free protocol to download public interest information, which should be free. You also could profit from people who want to get the information, but won't (for some reason) install a BitTorrent application. You could offer a really good text description of the contents of the documents (leaks, records or whatever) but if they want to see the original, they have to use BitTorrent or pay. Also, such a system should use Osprey, which if you haven't heard of it, is a BitTorrent tracker developed by ibiblio, and hosts a permanent seed on the server, thus negating the one fatal flaw of BitTorrent, which is not being able to get the file because no one is seeding.