> Almost every other engineering profession needs to adhere to a variety of standards and is subject to certifications and review, except for software engineers

> Almost every other engineering profession needs to adhere to a variety of standards and is subject to certifications and review, except for software engineers Every other engineering profession has actual physical phenomenon that governs them, leading to concrete standards that can be applied. Software doesnt. Debates on whether OOP or functional being 'the thing', client-side vs server-side delivery, typing or not typing, TDD or not and many more are still ongoing without any objective resolution. No side of any specific debate can objectively demonstrate their argument. Its all based on preference and biases. Even the concept of 'good practices' in any given field changes every 2 years. In this environment, attempting to bring concrete standards in software like other engineering fields would just end up in whichever group getting the upper hand in the regulatory body or political parties enforcing their own paradigm on everyone else, at the cost of innovation and productivity. ... This is before the fact that German business interests dominate the Euparl at this moment, and this law seems to have been crafted to cater to their interests - crippling and pushing out Open Source and private small software producers by ambiguous, brutal fines that they can never afford but the big business can. The users of these Open Source and private small software producers will have to go and become the users of the software and SaaS of these big corporations when those Open Source and small private software producers are bankrupt or pushed out. The biggest and most evil attack on Open Source in decades.