Maybe a script could be set to release a random subset of the documents and delete another random subset, i.e. if snowden_has_not_logged_in_for_7_days():

Maybe a script could be set to release a random subset of the documents and delete another random subset, i.e. if snowden_has_not_logged_in_for_7_days(): for doc in documents: if random.choice([True, False]): release(doc) else: permanently_delete(doc) Then all parties have something to lose (either undesired leak of some document, or losing the chance to learn the contents of a document) if Snowden dies.