Software Sovereignty Scale: How Dries Buytaert is redefining digital sovereignty

More than just a location advantage

In the European debate on digital independence, the call to "Buy European" is often heard. The logic behind this is simple: if you want to break away from US technology, you should buy from European companies. But is this not enough?

Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal, has a clear opinion on this: Sovereignty is not a question of geography, but of control. It's not about where a company's headquarters are located, but who ultimately has power over the code. The crucial question for every company and every government is:

"Can someone take this software away from me?"

To answer this question systematically, Dries has designed the Software Sovereignty Scale - a five-level model that rates software according to its structural sovereignty.

5 levels of software sovereignty

As with the well-known energy efficiency classes, the scale ranges from A (highest sovereignty) to E (total dependency). This clearly shows how different types of software differ in terms of the risk of losing access or control:

Why "Buy European" alone is not enough

Level D (European proprietary software) offers advantages such as GDPR compliance and local contacts, but sovereignty is often only temporary. Dries cites the example of Skype: founded by a Swede and a Dane, developed in Estonia, headquartered in Luxembourg. After takeovers by eBay and finally Microsoft, a European flagship technology became a US product.

Open source, on the other hand, separates the code from individual companies or countries. However, not every open source approach is equally secure.

The nuances of open source

1. Level C (Permissive Open Source): Licenses such as MIT or Apache allow companies to take the code and turn it into proprietary (closed) offshoots. A recent example is Redis, which changed its license after 15 years. The community saved itself with a fork called Valkey.
2. Stage B (copyleft + a copyright holder): Licenses such as the GPL (as with MySQL) guarantee that the code remains open. But: If a single company holds all the rights, it can place future versions under a different, closed license.
3. Level A (copyleft + distributed copyright): This is the gold standard. Projects like Linux or Drupal are owned by thousands of contributors. It is practically impossible to change the license afterwards, as you would need the consent of every single developer. Nobody can take this software away from you

.

Recommendations for the EU

Dries Buytaert argues that the European Commission and public administrations should include this scale in their procurement guidelines. He suggests tightening up the existing "Cloud Sovereignty Framework":

• Differentiation of license types: A focus on copyleft licenses that ensure software remains permanently open.
• Assessment of copyright concentration: Identifying risks through single-vendor strategies.
• Encouraging maintainers: As in a further article on The Drop Times, the EU should directly support open source maintainers to secure digital infrastructure.

Conclusion: Sustainability through level A

As a Drupal agency from Constance, we fully support this move. For our customers, the use of Drupal (level A) means not only technical excellence, but also real investment security. In a world where software providers dictate prices or are bought up overnight, Drupal offers a digital home that stays.

How sovereign is your software landscape? At Tojio, we help you to realize ambitious digital projects on a stable and independent basis.

Links

• Original blog post by Dries Buytaert
• Follow the discussion on LinkedIn
• Article at The Drop Times

Want to know how to take your digital strategy to "Level A"? Contact us at Tojio - we'll be happy to advise you!