Redistributing FMOD headers+libs in open source engine

In our open source game engine (see http://ezEngine.net) we provide an FMOD integration. So far we have followed the guideline to only redistribute DLLs. That means our users can only enjoy sound when they use a pre-built package of the engine, but once they check out our repository, they have to do the extra step to sign up with FMOD and download the Windows SDK themselves. Recently I have come across this discussion:

The way I read this, is that you allow projects like ours (game engines and such) to bundle the basic FMOD files (headers+libs) that are necessary to build the code. However, I don’t want to violate any of your conditions by maybe misinterpreting things, so I’d like to get a straight yes/no answer for our project as well (can’t be too cautious about the legal stuff, right?).

We’d like to ship the files from the “FMOD Studio API Windows” (+ maybe UWP) that are crucial for building our FMOD integration. That would be everything under the “api” folder in your SDK. So for example “fmod.hpp”, “fmod_vc.lib” and “fmod.dll”.

We would definitely NOT ship any of your exe files and obviously also not “FMOD Studio”.

In our documentation we already make it absolutely clear that FMOD is a commercial product and our users need to check the licensing conditions: FMOD Integration | ezEngine

Our goal is to make the experience for users to get up and running and to be able to try out our demos as seamless as possible. Once someone actually wants to edit a sound event, they will be forced to register with you guys and download FMOD Studio themselves.

As far as I can tell that is pretty much the same (or even more restricted) use case as was discussed in the other forum thread.

Would that be fine?

Hi,
Files under /api are ok to redistribute.
It is correct to notify users about FMOD’s licensing and that it is not by default ‘free’ to use as part of your engine, so you have it right.

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Awesome, thank you so much!