What John Bear really said!!

[Virtual Bison]

Yeah, going after every person who does this is not only practical, it might not serve a public interest. And even if it does, it would be dwarfed by the expense necessary to carry it off.

I like the idea of protecting the public with licensure around the professions that have the most potential to abuse the public if charlatans are allowed to practice. The rest can be handled by civil and private means.

I think both Texas and Oregon over-reach.

We are in agreement here.

Licenses can be kind of funny. You can reference you degree or previous job titles by what it is or was but you cannot claim a license you do not have. To be more exact, if you are a Combat Engineer (a very old name for military personnel who are employed in the construction of fortifications, laying of mines and such) you can say that you are an engineer. Or in the case of some specific job titles in the IT field this is a commonly used term (e.g. Data Systems Engineer etc.) To my knowledge, Professional Engineers are mostly civil engineers who seek to be self employed or work for larger firms. They have the responsiblity of designing or approving various projects. They are also legally liable for such projects and can be sued if malpractice is proven.

Seldom is anyone convicted of practicing engineering without a license unless they actually claim to have such a license. One notable exception, and possibly the only one I know of is Fred Leuchter who designed execution equipment. He was convicted of violating New Jersey law for practicing engineering without a license and given two years probation and a hefty fine. It is probable that the real reason for his conviction has more to do with his controversial work in attempting to disprove the Holocaust by gathering evidence at Auchwicz. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_A._Leuchter