[jordigh]

These companies should be careful. Are they Canadian companies? Microsoft was famously fined in Canada for advertising an engineering certification when it legally was not an engineering certification:

http://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/engineering/quebec...

The Professional Engineers of Ontario have this to say about "software engineer":

http://www.peo.on.ca/index.php/ci_id/2266/la_id/1.htm

It's not about "value production over semantics", but about legally designated professions.

Regulating engineering is more than just about the knowledge or value production associated, but it comes with an associated order you belong to and a code of ethics. There's the famous iron ring ceremony for Canadian engineers that is supposed to remind an engineer of the duties of their profession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring

If people in Silicon Valley calling themselves "software engineers" actually behaved according to the engineers' code of ethics instead of running towards the self-interested libertarian utopia at all costs, perhaps our current technological landscape wouldn't have enacted all of the abuses it currently does upon the users.