MiniMax H3 open-source model introduces region restriction, some users in Europe and the Americas will need to apply for authorization

August 3rd: Domestic AI company MiniMax's latest open-source video generation model, H3, added regional restrictions to its license, attracting market attention.

MiniMax's Developer Relations lead, Ryan Lee, stated that due to the company's ongoing litigation with multiple Hollywood studios regarding generated video copyrights, regional restrictions were added to the H3 license.

According to the H3 license, it is applicable globally, but excludes the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. Individuals and organizations in the aforementioned regions are unable to use, modify, deploy, or distribute H3 based on the public license by default. They also cannot directly use the model to generate content and need to apply for authorization from MiniMax separately.

This event is considered a change in the open-source model licensing approach. In the past, open-source models typically meant that once the code or model weights were made public, developers worldwide could freely use them. However, H3 is attempting to set different usage rules based on different legal jurisdictions while opening up the weights.

Industry experts suggest that future open-source AI models may adopt a "region-specific licensing" model, where the same model may be subject to different compliance requirements in various countries and regions.