A key objective for the drafters of the Community Data License Agreements is that the Agreements should function within a broader ecosystem of organizations and projects that create, curate, maintain and provide many different types of Data. In furtherance of this objective, the Agreements contemplate that some projects may choose to establish official digital records to be used to record and store (1) the Data itself, and/or (2) grants, contributions and licenses to Data. This may include, for example, provenance metadata regarding the sources of the Data.
The Sharing version of the Agreement defines the term “Ledger” in Section 1.7 to mean these digital records. In Section 3.2(b), it states that if a project has designated a Ledger for these purposes, then an Entity who Receives Data cannot restrict or deter others (such as those to whom it Publishes Data) from recording in the project’s Ledger either the Data itself, or grants of rights in the Data.
You may note that the Permissive version of the Agreement does not include the definition of the term “Ledger,” since the Permissive version does not include the corresponding restrictions from Section 3.2(b) of the Sharing version – and since the term “Ledger” is not used elsewhere in the Agreement. This omission should not be taken to imply that Ledgers could not be similarly relevant or used for projects that elect to operate under a Permissive version of the Agreement.