One of the most loved and used P2P  sharing web service LimeWire is facing imminent closure, courtesy,  a verdict by a US  federal court judge which  has  delivered a death blow to LimeWire , which is still  one of the most popular and oldest file-sharing systems.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood granted summary judgment in favor of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America ), which filed a copyright lawsuit against LimeWire in 2006. the Judge ruled that Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and engaged in unfair competition.

“It is obviously a fairly fatal decision for them,” said Michael Page, the San Francisco lawyer who represented file sharing service Grokster in the landmark case, MGM Studios, vs. Grokster and also represented Lime Wire’s former CTO in the company’s most recent copyright case. “If they don’t shut down, the other side will likely make a request for an injunction and there’s nothing left but to go on to calculating damages.”

As of today, LimeWire is still up and running, but, its a matter of time before, RIAA gets an injunction against LimeWire as soon as possible if LimeWire does not voluntary shut down operations.  If RIAA seeks and injunction  they may exercise it to forcibly shut LimeWire down.

LimeWire could survive only If it pays big bucks to RIAA and then submit themselves over to RIAA to be converted to a legal download store. It is rumored that RIAA has little interest in running LimeWire and that they will gladly accept the damages payment and effectively put LimeWire out of business.