Nope -- from day 1, Premieres was for actual premieres only. We were very much built on the Escapade model, which was strictly for new vids -- we were just the first to call the show Premieres, because we were the first to have other shows as well so needed to differentiate. (I had to go digging, but found an announcement that made that explicit, because you got me wondering if my memory had slipped: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vividcon/message/121)

We did allow vids that had aired within the past year, but only in the Nearly New show, which also started in year 1.

(There was an issue at some point during the first few years when a vidder who wasn't familiar with cons or the concept of Premieres put her vid up online before the con, which may be what you're remembering. But that was a mistake, and we may have wound up pulling her vid - I don't remember for sure.)