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by p_l 90 days ago
The SVG file is a representation of mickey mouse thus possibly touches Disney copyright (depends on exactly what form of Mickey it represents, as I believe some went public domain equivalent recently). It's not capable of being something else without substantial rework. Therefore it is a derivative work.

Generally, to pass the test of not being a derivative work it would need to be generic enough that it creates non-copyrighted works as well, then the responsibility shifts over. Can the program exist without a given copyrighted work (not general idea, specific copyrighted works)? Then it's quite probably not derivative.