On 24, Jack Bauer has faced every flavor of bad guy in existence and emerged victorious; the one illicit individual to finally bring him down, however, was a computer pirate in Singapore. Perhaps Fox’s poor promotional planning had something to do with it as well… let me explain myself.

Three weeks prior to the hotly anticipated release of 24 Season Six, word broke on Buddytv.com that pirates had made the first four episodes 24 season six of the series available for torrent download. Naturally the concern for FOX should be that die hard fans will not be able to resist the temptation and will download the bootlegs well in advance of the premiere and watch them exhaustively, commercial free, until the glow of premiere day, three weeks down the road, isn’t so alluring.

But on the other hand, we need to think about this in a different way. By these episodes being leaked early, fans know have a tool with which to attract non-viewers into the Jack Bauer army. Think about it. You’re not a 24 fan, but you heard it was pretty good. Suddenly the dude who sits two cubicles down with the 24 calendar and Jack Bauer bobble-head slips up next to you and informs: “Hey… I got the 24 premiere THREE WEEKS EARLY!”

Ah, the wonderful aroma of forbidden fruit. There are few scents more powerful in their ability to attract people to do the wrong things. Suddenly, even though you’re not a fan, the prospect of being able to see this Jack Bauer guy do his 24 hour things weeks ahead of the true geeks is just too good to resist.

Certainly, it is one of those moments where you have to wonder: will this do more harm than good? Surely, whether they were behind it or not, FOX hopes so.