Before her death in June of 2006, somewhat obscure British pianist Joyce Hatto had completed a miraculous renaissance near the end of her rather unremarkable career. Dubbed "The greatest pianist that no one has heard of", she had come out with several albums demonstrating a broad range of style and technique.

Recently, when a reviewer for Gramophone magazine put one of Hatto's CD's in his drive, iTunes (querying the CDDB) identified the CD as someone else's. After digging through his extensive collection of CDs, the reviewer found the CD that iTunes had identified. Sure enough, it was identical to the Hatto CD.

An audio engineer conducted a more detailed investigation which showed many of her recent recordings to be copies of other artists' works. Some were slightly modified to change the tempo without modifying the pitch, or given an EQ filter.

This shocking fraud is rocking the music and recording technology worlds. Hatto's husband and producer says he "Cannot explain the similarities." But given the mounting evidence, he may find himself on the receiving end of a class-action lawsuit by a number of composers and record companies soon enough.