Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!samsung!xanth!mcnc!duke!romeo!crm
From: crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Programmer Licensing?
Keywords: software safety, government regulation
Message-ID: <16107@duke.cs.duke.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 89 16:49:47 GMT
References: <39400056@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <242@cherry5.UUCP> <4600@ae.sei.cmu.edu> <1487@redsox.bsw.com>
Sender: news@duke.cs.duke.edu
Reply-To: crm@romeo.UUCP (Charlie Martin)
Organization: Duke University CS Dept.; Durham, NC
Lines: 31

In article <1487@redsox.bsw.com> campbell@redsox.UUCP (Larry Campbell) writes:
>
>The major difference is that most licensed professionals provide their
>services to individuals who are presumably in need of protection from
>charlatans.  Doctors, dentists, lawyers, electricians, beauticians -- all
>provide services to individuals who could be injured, or even killed, by an
>incompetent practitioner.
>

Don't be silly: the professional engineer license, the CPA, are both
examples of licenses for professions which do NOT in general treat with
individuals in the public, but are instead employed by large
organizations.  In both of these, and most or all of your examples, the
profession is licensed in part because there is a real risk involved in
incompetent performance, and because there is a perceived societal need
to guarantee that those who perform the task are competent and also
have an asset in there license that serves as a sort of bond of 
performance or competence.  A doctor, a PE, or a CPA can be sued for
malpractice, and can also lose their license for malpractice or
malfeasance; legally, an unlicensed person can only be sued for damages,
and the definition poor practice is much less stringent.

Software engineers perform services for the public, and more and more
often provide systems which put people at risk of loss of life or
property; your argument on its face seems to imply software angineers
should be licensed just as other engineers are.

Charlie Martin (CDP)


Charlie Martin (crm@cs.duke.edu,mcnc!duke!crm)