In Memoriam a.o. Prof. Dr. Walter Dillenz
It is with deep sadness that we announce that Prof. Dr. Walter Dillenz, former Managing Director of VdFS for many years, passed away on Friday, 22 March 2024 after a long and serious illness.
Dr. Walter Dillenz, born on 7 January 1942, was a co-initiator and founding partner of VdFS - Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden - more than 30 years ago. It was mainly thanks to him that the rights of film authors and actors could finally be collectively managed by a collecting society in Austria.It was primarily thanks to Dr. Dillenz's initiative, commitment, expertise, assertiveness and negotiating skills that VdFS was able to distribute royalties from Austria and abroad to Austrian filmmakers from 1993 onwards.
The first priority was to assert the rights of filmmakers over those of musicians, writers, visual artists, film producers, etc. and to enshrine them in law. It can be considered a pioneering achievement by Dr. Dillenz that this path could be successfully taken. The demands of film actors also had to be "fought for" first. Dr. Dillenz also successfully fought this battle on the front line.
It is well known that filmmakers in Austria have long been discriminated against by the legislator compared to other authors and holders of ancillary copyrights (the so-called "cessio legis" rule, according to which all exploitation rights for commercially produced films were originally held by the film producers). Dr. Dillenz successfully campaigned to overturn this regulation, which was contrary to EU law, in a test case before the European Court of Justice (ECJ). For these reasons, he can rightly be described as a "pioneer for the enforcement of the rights and claims of filmmakers in Austria".
It is also well known that Dr. Dillenz is one of the best-known and most renowned national and international authors in copyright law - especially in film copyright law. In this regard, reference should be made to his extensive list of publications.
In addition to his 20 years as managing director of VdFS, which was preceded by a 15-year career as director of AKM - the collecting society of composers and music publishers - Dr. Dillenz also worked as a court-certified expert and, together with Prof. Dr. Michel Walter, supervised the dissertation seminar on copyright law at the University of Vienna.
In 2012, Dr. Dillenz was awarded the Cross of Honour by the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture for special services to the arts and sciences in Austria.
Dr. Dillenz has always worked for the interests of our company with the utmost commitment and expertise, for which we cannot thank him enough.
Our thoughts are with him and his family!
On behalf of the Management Board, the Supervisory Board and the staff of VdFS