The invention is directed to a method and apparatus for preventing software piracy. A license enforcement server may be integrated with an operating system running on a network-critical machine. As such, other computational devices connected to the network may obtain permission to perform licensed activities. These computational devices may have an instruction set for communicating with the license enforcement server. Further, the license enforcement server may communicate with a licensing organization. The license enforcement server may utilize a namespace tree to organize licenses and uniquely identify licensed activities. In this manner, a universal license enforcement system may be achieved in which disabling of the license enforcement mechanisms would adversely effect a network.