diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/lic-checksum.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/lic-checksum.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd3b9a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/lic-checksum.py
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+import os
+import tempfile
+
+from oeqa.selftest.base import oeSelfTest
+from oeqa.utils.commands import bitbake
+from oeqa.utils import CommandError
+from oeqa.utils.decorators import testcase
+
+class LicenseTests(oeSelfTest):
+
+    # Verify that changing a license file that has an absolute path causes
+    # the license qa to fail due to a mismatched md5sum.
+    @testcase(1197)
+    def test_nonmatching_checksum(self):
+        bitbake_cmd = '-c configure emptytest'
+        error_msg = 'ERROR: emptytest: The new md5 checksum is 8d777f385d3dfec8815d20f7496026dc'
+
+        lic_file, lic_path = tempfile.mkstemp()
+        os.close(lic_file)
+        self.track_for_cleanup(lic_path)
+
+        self.write_recipeinc('emptytest', 'INHIBIT_DEFAULT_DEPS = "1"')
+        self.append_recipeinc('emptytest', 'LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://%s;md5=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e"' % lic_path)
+        result = bitbake(bitbake_cmd)
+
+        with open(lic_path, "w") as f:
+            f.write("data")
+
+        result = bitbake(bitbake_cmd, ignore_status=True)
+        if error_msg not in result.output:
+            raise AssertionError(result.output)