To establish: I'm American. Specifically, New York state.
I only know of the distinction because of an episode of Doctor Who (I tried the first three seasons of the new version, got tired of it).
However, even if I were British, I couldn't care less. Flag rules are only useful when an obnoxious and in-your-face "patriot" accidentally disobeys them and you get the opportunity to make them look like an idiot. For example, on one of the anniversaries of 9/11, I saw a guy wearing an American flag like a Superman cape. The VFW has a flag code, and I took great pleasure in telling him that he was breaking three of the rules: He was wearing the flag as an article of clothing; he was letting the flag touch the ground; he didn't set the flag so that the blue section was in the top left corner.