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

Mechtilde Stehmann <[email protected]> Mon, 16 Mar 2026 20:47:16 +0100

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Hello,

Am 16.03.26 um 20:15 schrieb Soren Stoutner:
> On Sunday, March 15, 2026 3:06:12 AM Mountain Standard Time Carl Keinath wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> No, I don’t think adding GPL-3+ test data to debian/tests makes the shipped binary
> packages GPL-3+ (if someone is aware of a way that it would make the shipped binary
> packages GPL-3+, please correct me).  It does force everything that runs the Debian tests
> to comply with the GPL-3+, but that is not a problem for Debian, as our testing
> infrastructure handles many GPL-3+ files.
> 
> I think you are fine as long as the licensing of these files is correctly identified in debian/
> copyright.

The main question is:

What are the requirements to have a derived work in the sense of the GPL?

What can I put together without having a derived work?
> 

-- 
Mechtilde Stehmann

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