Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!genbank!bionet!ig!arizona!mike
From: mike@cs.arizona.edu (Mike Coffin)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Programmer Licensing?
Message-ID: <15751@megaron.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 89 22:48:53 GMT
References: <16107@duke.cs.duke.edu>
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 15

From article <16107@duke.cs.duke.edu> (Charlie Martin):
> ...In both of these [currently liscensed professions], 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...

A more cynical point of view is that they are all professions in which
the ``ins'' have exerted themselves to ensure that the unwashed masses
aren't allowed to compete.  My guess is that if software licenses are
ever required it will be for precisely that reason.
-- 
Mike Coffin				mike@arizona.edu
Univ. of Ariz. Dept. of Comp. Sci.	{allegra,cmcl2}!arizona!mike
Tucson, AZ  85721			(602)621-2858


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