Could the original rumour have come from working to rule BrATCO? I'm sure a while back for a few weeks Brest/Paris opened all the sectors during the day regardless of traffic loadings just to make a point. It was the same time that we (London) got told to stop sending traffic through Etrat/Veule on direct routings beyond those points as we would enter another sector (and not to do with the La Manche resectoring either).
Our TLPD is blocked into 15 minute segments and has different colours for different flights, ie red is actually in the sector, orange is airborne in another FIR, pink I think is airborne in the UK FIR, green is pending live time without flow restriction (you get the idea)...... It is not a very good "gadget" IMHO!!!