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Here are the brief steps for generating and verifying a license. 

Step 1: The requested license level, product name, and specific machine attribute are hashed together and sent to the license web service.
Step 2: The server verifies that the license request is valid and the client has paid.
Step 3: The server uses RSA to sign the client hash with the server private key.
Step 4: The server returns the signed key to the client.
Step 5: The client validates the license key with the server public key.

I registered Sharewarestarterkit.com as we have plans to host the web service and database for developers.  There will be a web interace allowing you so see registrations, error reports, license activations, etc.  It's currently under development and should be ready in a beta state within a few weeks.

This kit does keep track of each successful activation of a product.  When the app using the license and activation functionality of the SSK is run for the first time it hits the licensing web service to see if the particular machine has been activated before.  If it has then the license is sent back to the client.  If not then the client is put in "trial" or shareware mode.  A customizable WMI query is used to get hardware specific infomration to uniquly identify client machines.  By default the #1 processor serial number is used.