19 March - Monday
International Customer Day
1474 Venice passed a law on the protection of copyrights to inventions
1899 The first ambulance station in St. Petersburg was opened
1918 The USA adopted the Standard Time Act and approved the division into time zones
March 19, 1474 in Venice for the first time in the world was passed a law on the protection of copyrights to inventions. This was the first law in the world on the protection of copyright, which already recognized the "moral right" and the exclusive right to use the author of his invention for a limited period of time.
By the way, it was at that time in Venice that Leonardo da Vinci lived and worked, whose creativity owes the world the prototypes of modern tanks, spacesuits, helicopters and parachutes. But the great artist and inventor, unfortunately, could not take advantage of the new law. Perhaps the scientist was afraid of a church that was very suspicious of any innovations.
In the Middle Ages, the predecessors of copyright were the so-called privileges, which were appropriated by the monarch to the author. Privileges, as a rule, extended to literary works.
But this practice was rather rare: many scientists and art people believed that claiming the rights to their works was meaningless and sinful, because their works are not an act of creation, but represent only a piece of divine knowledge, expressed in a feasible way.