How do you put a TV station on the Mbone?

[bonomi at mail.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)]

> Date: Mon, 02 May 2011 10:11:34 -0400
> From: David Sparro <dsparro at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: How do you put a TV station on the Mbone?
>
> On 4/29/2011 8:57 PM, Robert Bonomi wrote:
> > Those royalties are based on the_actual_number_  of persons
> > tuning in to each such work.  No 'averaging', no 'estimating', nothing
> > based on 'ratings', or other 'sampling techniques -- you have to count
> > the_actual_number_  of people tuned in.  It gets messy, but you have to
> > have 'auditable' records of when each person 'tuned in', and when they
> > 'tuned out'.  One_has_  to be able to detect the latter condition under
> > all possible circumstances.
>
> Really?  

Yeah, _really_.  That is what the law says.

>   How do they detect the number of people that were gathered 
> around my screen while I was watching?
> Does that mean I'll be able to get a refund (pro-rated of course) for 
> falling asleep during UFC 129 this weekend?

There is an 'assumption' built into the applicable implementation rules
issued by the government that 'one active display device' == 'one viewer'.

How close that  assumption is to 'objective reality' is irrelevant to
the legalities involved in calculating royalties due.