A system for balancing a distribution of allocations for protected
software over a communication network is disclosed. The system is
comprised of at least one client computer and a pool of license servers
coupled to the communication network. The client computers request
authorizations to use the protected software, while a distribution of
allocations is managed among the pool of servers for tracking and
managing available allocations for using the protected software. One
license server in the pool is designated as the current leader server.
When a particular license server does not have a selectable minimum
amount of available allocations, the current leader server re-assigns,
where possible, the allocations within the pool by updating memory
containing the distribution tables of license servers in the pool, to
give at least one additional allocation to the particular license server.