Of course, the stories might seem a bit laughable to anyone who has more than a casual knowledge of BitTorrent software and how long it's been in widespread use.

Despite reporting to the contrary, this is at least the third year that TV pilots have been widely available online.

While pilots and other TV screeners have been passed around online since the 1990's, it wasn't until 2004 when the practice really exploded. Thanks to BitTorrent, and an explosion of sites posting links to the files, nearly every fall TV pilot has been available for unauthorized downloading.

While it's impossible to determine precisely who provides the video, most of it seems to come from people associated with the advertising industry and those who have access to screeners provided to TV critics.

Typically, a flood of pilots hit the net after the May upfront presentations, and another batch show up within days of the July Television Critics Association gathering.

But it also seems likely that some of the pilots are leaked by those associated in some way with the show itself. The demographic breakdown of people who would download a TV pilot online tends to be young, educated and technologically sophisticated. It's a group of viewers that is ironically both sought after by networks and also extremely difficult to reach through traditional methods.

The difficulty with courting that audience is that while a great show can build an early buzz online, an early, flawed version of the pilot--or a show that just disappoints--can bring a negative buzz that taints the show's "official" launch.

One show that benefited greatly from a leaked pilot was ABC's "Lost." A near-complete version of the two-hour pilot found its way online in May of 2004, and it quickly developed a near-mythical reputation online. At least a half dozen fan sites devoted to the show sprang up over the summer, and by the time the show premiered in September, the buzz had migrated to traditional media sources, who reported extensively on the online discussions.

While it's impossible to prove someone from the show helped the process along, it's probably no mistake that additional video and images continued to leak online in the days leading up the broadcast premiere.

But things don't always work out so well.

When an early version of ABC's "Night Stalker" surfaced online last summer, the overall buzz on the show was extremely negative. Fans of the original sc-fi series complained about the tone and youthfulness of the remake. The special effects were also an issue with fans, and while the final ten minutes or so of the show were reworked, that version of the show didn't surface online before the official airdate. The result was that the show developed a somewhat undeserved reputation online of being a disappointment. While that negative buzz wasn't the reason the show was eventually canceled, it didn't do the show any favors.

Another show that found itself the target of negative online buzz after a pilot was posted online was the 2004 CBS drama "Dr. Vegas."

The version that surfaced online was an early, incomplete version that was about ten minutes shorter than the version which premiered on TV.

The problem was that the early version was a much better viewing experience. The additional footage included scenes recounting nights of frezied gambling by the Doctor (played by Rob Lowe). Those scenes were apparently supposed to give a background texture to Lowe's character. But the result was the exact opposite. The footage came off maudlin and manipulative, and once the show premiered, the buzz from fans who had enjoyed the early version was strongly negative.

Once again, it wasn't enough to contribute the show's eventual cancellation, but it did alienate a potential hardcord fan base.

So what Fall TV shows can you find online today?

While I'm sure I missed a couple, I've counted 11 shows, including a couple of midseason series.

The shows that have benefited most from pre-air buzz this season seem to be the CBS drama "Jericho," CW's "Runaway" and ABC's "The Nine."

NBC's "Heroes" and Fox's "Happy Hour" have received the worst response so far from fans.