A federal judge in New York issued an injunction yesterday that will essentially shut down LimeWire, the big music file-sharing service that has been mired in a four-year legal struggle with the music industry. The case has already resulted in the company and its founder, Mark Gorton, being found liable for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Although the file-sharing service is on the verge of vanishing in its current form, the company will continue negotiations with the major music companies about a deal to offer music for sale legally.

In her ruling, Judge Kimba M. Wood of US District Court in Manhattan forced the company to disable “searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality’’ of the company’s file-sharing software.

The court is scheduled to decide early next year the amount the company and Gorton will be forced to pay.
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