Codecs and Software Patents - Part IX - GNU Project Has Chosen to Adopt AV1 for Its Videos, Conversion and Additions Underway

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 24, 2026

Today we continue a series that explores the state of codec patents, or software patents that infest Free software through the need to decode and sometimes encode multimedia in formats other people can handle. This is not a really novel or a new problem, but we are looking at the state of things in 2026. This morning we mentioned one of the biggest and most vicious culprits, Sisvel, which absorbed the EPO's media operative. Just because fewer sites still talk about these issues doesn't mean the issues went away. They're not hibernating either. GNU/Linux distro builders are blackmailed using these patents, in secret and isolation. The Linux Foundation does nothing to help them because this foundation is in fact part of the problem.

One of our readers is working to help GNU through the maze of software patents and maze of patent lawsuits, which aren't the same thing but are somewhat overlapping issues. "I also earned a spot on the GNU Audio/Video team!" he told us some weeks ago. "I wanted to let you know that some changes are coming to how materials are processed and released for the GNU project. I'm working with others on the team to get official approval and support behind the free AV1 video codec, and I think Georgia Tech's computing resources could help significantly with the conversion workload."

We already said in a prior part that the decision on AV1 is now finalised, with transcoding underway.

"There is a substantial backlog of talks by RMS and other free software figures that need to be encoded and published," we heard, "and I've already been converting dozens of older files as proof of concept; some dating as far back as 2005! The FSF simply hasn't had the computing power to tackle this kind of archival work before, and frankly, putting campus GPUs toward that seems like a far better use of resources than training LLMs and calling it "Artificial Intelligence." [sic] [slop]" █

Previously:

2026-05-05	Codecs and Software Patents - Part I - The 2026 Status Quo
2026-05-06	Codecs and Software Patents - Part II - AV1 and HEVC Not Really Safe
2026-05-07	Codecs and Software Patents - Part III - AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) and Antitrust Issues
2026-05-08	Codecs and Software Patents - Part IV - Things Got So Bad That Some Laptop Sales Got Banned in the EU (Over Software Patents!)
2026-05-10	Codecs and Software Patents - Part V - A Reminder That GAFAM and the European Patent Office (Which Serves American Monopolists) Do Considerable Harm to the Commons and Culture
2026-05-11	Codecs and Software Patents - Part VI - The European Patent Office, Nokia, Microsoft, Sisvel, and More
2026-05-15	Codecs and Software Patents - Part VII - Entering Phase II, the Battle Against Companies That Normalise Taxed (by Patents on Mathematics) Codecs
2026-05-21	Codecs and Software Patents - Part VIII - GNU Audio/Video Team Has Chosen the AV1 Video Codec and It Explains Why (They've Researched Their Options)