Sounds like NNTP combined with BitTorrent..

Back in the day I remember dreaming ways to optimize the NNTP server- surely there was a better way than storing each article in a separate file.. but actually it was a very convenient to have a shell account on the same system that ran the server. This is why I enjoyed TheWorld (Software Tool & Die). You could cat the articles if you wanted.

/usr/spool/news, C-News, innd (Rich $alz!), it's all coming back..