RTDA LM counts both the number of concurrent users having license checkouts, and through 2009.03, the hosts from which those checkouts originated. Each user takes one user_licmon feature and each host takes one host_licmon feature. In post-2009.03 versions, hosts are no longer tracked. The license features are checked out by the vovserver running LM.
In almost all cases, RTDA sells LM as a user-based system, and issue a license with a very large number of host_licmon so that user_licmon and not host_licmon is the limiting element. In post-2009.03 versions, the host_licmon feature is no longer needed, and not issued.
Since LM must not block or stop collecting info when it sees more checkouts than it is licensed for, it responds by obfuscating (scrambling) the checkout log entries for ones that are more than the licensed quantity.
The obfuscation can be retroactively removed after getting a larger license, using the ftlm_deobfuscate command.
The function of translating current license in-use info into License: resources for NC is not limited by users or hosts, only historical and denial data need user_licmon features.