Because iTunes' gift codes are so easy to crack, hackers can often only get 1% of the supposed value of their codes (so a $200 gift code could only sell for $2). In an effort to increase that percentage, some pirates have started contacting iPhone app developers, offering to "purchase" their app as many times as desired in exchange for a 50-50 cut of Apple's per-purchase pay.
This kind of tactic undermines what's so cool about the App Store— a nobody can make something hundreds of thousands of people will love, and make money doing it, just on the merits of the creation. That's rare in the software industry, where software is pirated almost on principle, and it'd be a shame to see the App Store corrupted. [AppleInsider and Ars Technica]