If there's one thing that the buy-side has been hungry for in recent years, it's been actual industry research. They want to hear from the horses' mouths where industries are heading. There may be some hedge funds out there that see nothing wrong with the methods employed by Raj Rajaratnam and his merry band of hedge fund managers, Fortune 500 executives and top consultants, but a good lawyer will be able to make much of the fine line between aggressive research and illegal inside information.

The New York Times says hedge funds are watching all this intently. It might be hard to get around the words of some of the participants. One in particular, Danielle Chiesi, noted a few times that she'd be jail if word of their activity leaked out. The prosecution certainly had the time to mount a case, and they would appear to be confident in what they gleaned via taps and cooperating witnesses. We'll see who turns on who as this goes forward.

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