1. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a licensing client executing on a client computing device and from a software application on the client computing device that is separate from the licensing client, a license status request that is to obtain an indication of whether the software application is licensed for use on the client computing device, wherein the client computing device obtained the software application from an online application market that distributes software applications from multiple software application publishers; identifying, by the licensing client, identity information that identifies at least one of the client computing device or a user of the client computing device; sending, from the client computing device and to a licensing service that operates remotely from the client computing device, in response to the licensing client receiving the license status request from the software application, a first communication that includes the identity information that identifies at least one of the client computing device or the user of the client computing device, wherein the licensing service generates the indication of whether the software application is licensed for use on the client computing device based at least in part on the identity information included in the first communication and licensing information associated with the software application; receiving, by the licensing client, a license status response from the licensing service that includes the indication of whether the software application is licensed for use on the client computing device; and sending, from the licensing client and to the software application for processing by the software application, a second communication based on the license status response that includes the indication of whether the software application is licensed for use on the client computing device, wherein the licensing service is associated with the online application market, wherein the licensing service and the online application market are operated by an entity that is independent of at least some of the multiple software application publishers.