Swarms of iPod users have by now infiltrated most major cities in North America and Western Europe. They're easy to spot. Like patients in an intensive care unit, they're permanently hooked up to white wires that provide them with a steady stream — in some cases as much as 60 gigabytes worth — of digital music emanating from their Apple MP3 players.

The rise of the iPod and of its integrated online music store iTunes has been one of the more successful campaigns to counterbalance global music piracy with legal downloading, say music industry executives.

But in Prague, iPod user sightings remain rare.

The majority of music downloading in this country is illegal, but the situation could change now that Apple has launched its first Czech store, which opened its doors in Andel Center Oct. 31. A Czech version of iTunes, run by Apple, should arrive at the end of next year. Czech credit card holders will finally be able to download songs legally by paying a fixed amount (in the United States it is 99 cents per track).

Each country has its own online iTunes store, so those with Czech bank accounts will have to wait for the Czech version before they can load up on Dan Bárta or Traband. The payoff, however, will be a bigger selection of Czech music than is available on iTunes sites of other countries.

Perhaps no one's happier about this than the staff of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the music industry's main anti-piracy arm in the Czech Republic. "The longer we don't have iTunes here, the bigger the problem of illegal downloading will grow," says Petra Zikovská, IFPI's Czech branch director. "People will get too accustomed to downloading music for free."

According to IFPI statistics, sales for Czech record companies fell from 1.13 million units in the first three quarters of 2004 to 910,000 for the same period this year. Revenue fell from 151 million Kc to less than 117 million Kc over the same time frame. The IFPI cites illegal downloading as the key reason. Zikovská says the main problem is that music servers here don't offer a wide selection of legally downloadable music files — but iTunes will help.

To deal with the escalating problem, the IFPI has recently expanded its efforts from scouting out pirate music products to filing criminal complaints against people who illegally download. As of yet, the organization hasn't fined anyone, however.

"It's mostly young people who aren't familiar with the law, so we've been pretty lenient," says Zikovská. "For now, we usually just give them a warning, and in most cases they immediately stop."

Aneta Langerová, last year's winner of the TV Nova talent-search smash hit Cesko hledá SuperStar, is less forgiving. "I don't think it's a matter of young people not knowing that what they're doing is illegal," she says. "I think they do it because it's available. They don't want to pay if they can get it for free."

She recalls instances where fans presented her with burned copies of her recently released album to be autographed. "It's tough. I don't want to disappoint them when they approach me looking all innocent," she says, "but I think they know what they're doing."

Besides, she says, "Our music market is really small, so I think that every instance of music piracy makes an impact. It's not fair to musicians who are trying to make a living."

Langerová recently signed a deal with Apple for an exclusive iPod edition to be called Aneta. The ad, featuring Langerová's image, features the telling slogan "You can also listen to music legally."

Not all musicians agree with Langerová. "Music should be about communication, above all," says Jaroslav Svoboda, the frontman for the quirky, Klezmer-influenced band Traband. "Once we release a song into the ether, I sort of consider it public property."

Svoboda notes that he is, of course, much happier if fans buy his band's music rather that obtain it illegally, but what matters most to him is that they hear the music. "It makes me sad when musicians spend so much effort on preventing illegal copying," he adds. "Once music becomes nothing more than a business, it's just as good as dead."

Record companies counter, with an argument that dates to the invention of audiotape, that if illegal copying continues, it's the music industry that will be dead.

Tomás Filip, the general director of Universal in the Czech Republic, says the label has seen a drop in album sales since 2001, but he notes that it's difficult to determine to what degree illegal downloading is responsible.

They have been affected by it, though. The most recent instance was when songs from the new album by the Czech band Chinaski appeared online before the official release date.

The threat illegal downloaders pose isn't the same for all companies, points out Jaromír Kratochvíl, co-owner of Indies Records, a Czech label whose focus is on local musicians outside the mainstream. "I think most of our customers usually buy music," he says. "We have really nice album covers and a lot of people like to have the music in physical form, to be able to touch the box and to hold it in their hands."

Does this mean that the album as a concept may not die out after all? "I certainly hope so," says Kratochvíl.

Over at the Apple Center in Prague 5, meanwhile, iPods are selling fast — despite the steep price tag: 60-gigabyte players cost 14,500 Kc ($590).