FreeCalypso hardware update

[Mychaela Falconia]

Hello FC community,

I've got an update on the quest for new FreeCalypso hardware in the
form of FCDEV3B V2 boards.  I finally got enough money (on my own, no
one donated) to pay for the PCB fabrication step, and I just sent my
first inquiry to pcbcart (the same Chinese PCB fab who did our FCDEV3B
V1 boards) about making new boards from our new Gerber files, but
keeping all of the intricate fab details (particularly the physical
layer stackup) from our previous run almost 2 y ago.  I don't expect
them to look at it before Monday China time, and then it will probably
be several days of email back-and-forth to get all of the details
squared away and nailed down before the formal go-ahead with payment,
but at least we are moving now, rather than stalled waiting for money.
If everything goes well, I am hoping to have our first fully assembled
boards near the beginning of 2019.

Also earlier this week I finally got our trademark registration
certificate from USPTO, i.e., FreeCalypso is now officially a
registered trademark owned by me, at least in USA:

https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/legal/fc-tm-reg-cert.pdf

Over the past many months I have made it abundantly clear via many
postings on this mailing list that the ONLY thing which FreeCalypso
needs and lacks is money: while I have practically unlimited eagerness
and motivation to keep working on this project, the lack of money has
been limiting the pace at which our project progresses to slower than
a snail.  Unfortunately there were some rogue actors who twisted the
message in a quite perverted way: saying that they don't want to be
dependent on me as the hardware manufacturer and supplier (they said
they wanted to protect themselves against me losing interest in the
project, what an insult!), instead of helping the FreeCalypso/Falconia
family with cash donations to make our hardware, they expressed an
intent to steal our work (as well as that of our predecessors at
Openmoko) by making their own hardware production runs from our
published design files, cutting our family and FreeCalypso Central
out of the loop.  I hope that the wider FreeCalypso community will
join me in condemning those rogue actors, and they have already been
warned that if they sell hardware that is not physically made by
Falconia Family under the name FreeCalypso, they will be committing
trademark infringement.

Now before anyone says that I am being hypocritical by condemning
those people for stealing my work while I steal TI's, let me point out
that in my formal letter to TI which I sent them near the end of
August and to which I have not yet received any response, I offered to
pay them a per-unit royalty for every hardware unit which I produce
and sell with our TI-based FreeCalypso firmware.  If they do take me
up on that offer, I will gladly pay, as I consider it a small price
for the added legitimacy, but if they never say or write back even one
word to me, well, I did offer to pay, so I am in my right to assume
that they are not asking for a royalty and are perfectly OK with what
I am doing with their software.

I am also in the process of applying for an official IMEI number range
(TAC) allocation for our FCDEV3B modems - this was my original purpose
for going through the almost year-long USPTO trademark process, as
every IMEI range application must be made under some registered "brand
name", and the applicant needs to prove ownership of that brand name
via some kind of govt-issued certificate.  If we (Falconia Family) do
succeed in getting an official IMEI number range for our FreeCalypso
modem products, it should be obvious that IMEI numbers out of that
range will only be available for those physical hardware units that
have been made and sold by Falconia Partners LLC, and not for any
rogue cut-me-out-of-the-loop production runs.

Finally, I just recently learned an interesting tidbit from a company
that helps wireless device manufacturers get various needed regulatory
approval certifications:

https://www.7layers.com/type-approval

Read what it says in the section titled "Self declaration of conformity".
If I am reading it correctly, they say that regulatory compliance in
EU and EFTA countries does NOT require paying an outrageous amount of
money for an official certification test, instead if the manufacturer
is certain that their product is compliant based on their own internal
tests, it is sufficient for that manufacturer to make a legally binding
self-declaration of compliance.

If the above is indeed true, then it should be possible for me to make
a sworn and notarized statement declaring that my GSM modem products
are compliant with all applicable standards and fit for use on public
GSM networks, and once I make that official statement, anyone residing
in the EU (which still includes the UK, or does it not any more?)
should then be able to use my products without any fear of legal
trouble: in the event that a FreeCalypso modem misbehaves or disrupts
or interferes with anything, all legal liability will be on me as the
manufacturer who made the self-declaration of compliance, and NOT on
you as the end user - the only thing they could make YOU do would be
to tell you to turn the device off and not turn it back on until the
problem is fixed.  But here comes the rub: if I do make such an
official and legally binding self-declaration of conformance with
radio regulations, it will once again apply only to those hardware
units which were made and sold by me, and not any rogues.  It will
also be limited to devices running firmware images officially released
by me and marked as fit for production use - you are welcome to build
and run your own fw, but then you are on your own as far as radio
regulations go.

Hasta la Victoria, Siempre,
Mychaela aka The Mother