Hail to the Thief leaked ten weeks early, and even its producer went looking for it.

All 14 tracks went online on 30 March 2003 as unfinished rough mixes, ten weeks before the album was due out on 9 June. Nigel Godrich, who produced it, asked on the band's message board where to find the MP3s, and ten minutes later he had heard them: “aint that a bitch?”