GPL-3+ licensed test fixture (SVG/metadata) in BSD-3 project

"Carl Keinath" <[email protected]> Sun, 15 Mar 2026 11:06:12 +0100
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hello,

I have a licensing question regarding a Debian package. The upstream
project is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. To run autopkgtests, I added a
minimal cursor theme under debian/tests/. It consists of an SVG image
and a metadata file (.hl) used as input data by the tests.

These files are licensed under GPL-3+. During the tests they are
converted into a compiled theme format (.hlc), which the test binaries
then read. The files are not part of the upstream source code, are not
linked into the program, and are not installed in any binary packages.

Could including these GPL-3+ test data files under debian/tests/
cause the resulting test binaries, or the source package as a whole,
to be considered a derivative work of GPL-3+?

PS: please CC me, as I am not subscribed.

Best,
-- 
Carl
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