MiniMax Response to H3 U.S. Ban: Authorization Possible Due to Hollywood Copyright Lawsuit

According to Watchful AI monitoring, the MiniMax H3 license excludes the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. Some community developers have raised concerns that, based on the terms, even U.S. users cannot download the model.

MiniMax's lead, Ryan Lee, responded that the U.S. restriction stems from the company's generative video copyright lawsuit with major Hollywood film companies. U.S. users seeking to deploy H3 can formally apply for authorization but must commit to establishing a content compliance mechanism that complies with U.S. laws and regulations.

Disney, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. had previously sued MiniMax, alleging that Spiral AI had used their copyrighted content without permission to train the model and generate popular characters from Marvel, "Star Wars," and other works. A U.S. court denied MiniMax's request to dismiss the case in May of this year, and the case is still ongoing.