Having a liscense really doesnt mean anything. I work in the medical field as a radiographer, taking 'xrays'. To get a job doing this in California requires a state license and usually also national license. To keep your license you are required to take so many educational units a year. However.. In my experience quite a few of the licensed profesionals either couldnt pass the test if they had to take them today without lots of reviewing or do not bother to follow some of the basic ideas that were the reason for implementing the license in the first place.

Realisticly, threat of loosing your license because of being unethical or because of poor job performance would not be effective. Unless of course were talking negligence resulting in something drastic. Like... hum.. Giving buggy code to a governement agency resulting in massive data loss! Otherwise nothing is going to happen.. Who is going to inforce it?! Think about it, even with lawsuits and deaths there are still doctors practicing medicine who shouldnt..

Do you really think it would help enusre better code??? Better education, yes... But just because you are dedicated enough to go through school or study for licensing tests doesnt mean you are a good programer. It will not bring responsibility for the code produced.

The responsibilty for code produced is shared between the programers who write the code and the people or business's that release and sell that code.

Thats my 2 cents.
zzSPECTREz

In theory it is a good idea... In reality, it wouldnt do any good I fear.