We Canadians have always known that this is the case. We have this Canadian content law up here (from your friends at the CRTC). I have an iPod Touch and decided that I wanted to put the latest software on it from Apple so I could use the App Store. I re-flashed the firmware (it was jailbroken) because I actually want to support these guys and the App Store is pretty cool. I bought a gift card for this very purpose. I hate putting tons of little transactions on my credit card. So I get the card and go home and download some apps and find it has not charged my gift card. Thinking there must have been some mistake I buy a game I wanted. Same thing. It went through but billed my cc.
I had to go to Apple Support to find out that due to some weird-ass law that we have up here it is not legal to purchase software over the internet by means of a pre-paid medium. That means you CANNOT use your gift card to buy apps, although it works fine for movies or TV, such as it is up in Canada (the TV shows are damned awful to choose from). But the main gripe is I would never have bought this stupid card had I know this in advance. I looked and looked on Apple's site. The only thing I could find that suggested this was the case was forum posts from other frustrated users. Needless to say I was pissed and jail broke my ipod again.
The reward for working hard is more hard work.