I do have a very similar problem. I was upgrading from 3.1.2.4 to 3.2.1.1 and adapting my theme when I discovered that
$publication->getData('licenseUrl')
does not work any more although the data is actually there.
So neither the fallback to the journal’s license works nor the specific licenseUrl in the table publications_settings
But there is already an issue here: License disappears after upgrade to 3.2.1 - #5 by asmecher
all the best
Klaus