Tons of companies are shipping Linux without giving users access to the source code, it's just that only one has the term "Tivoization" named after it.
Thats false! There is already a link to the wikipedia article, but here is the relevant quote: „but uses hardware restrictions or digital rights management (DRM) to prevent users from running modified versions of the software on that hardware.“
It is not a violation of the GPL 2, the license of the Linux kernel, but only the GPL 3 which was basically created for this case. Linus Torvalds is a big defender of the GPL 2 and said that Tivo provided good patches for the hardware they used.
I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my penguin go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
Reporting back... It was a good movie actually. I always assumed it was going to be silly or over the top but it was pretty believable and cathartic to watch these terrible bad guys get their shit ruined.
I came across a bunch of those recently, which is how I came up with the idea for this, as a parody :)
Internet horror is disappointingly un-creative. I have no idea why the weakest works (sonic.exe, anti-piracy, kill screens) always end up becoming huge trends, or why so few people try to put a significant twist on said trends.
I think it has to do with the age of the target audience? I remember being absolutely terrified and morbidly fascinated by sonic.exe and similar when I was in middle school. What might seem weak/shallow/uncreative to an adult might actually be extremely interesting to someone younger.
TiVo complied with the GPLv2 and distributed source code for their modifications to Linux. What they did not do was distribute the cryptographic keys which would allow TiVo customers to run modified versions it on their TiVo devices. This is what motivated the so-called anti-tivoization clause in GPLv3 (the "Installation Information" part of Section 6. Conveying Non-Source Forms.).
Linux remains GPLv2, so, everyone today still has the right to do the same thing TiVo did (shipping it in a product with a locked bootloader).
Distributing Linux (or any GPLv2 software) with a threat of violence against recipients who exercise some of the rights granted by the license, as is depicted in this post, would be a violation section 6 of GPLv2 ("You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.").
Promising to "find someone" is not a threat much less a restriction of rights. Maybe OP is compiling a list of locked-down devices to avoid, that's perfectly in their rights, and it's also in their rights to inform people of such an endeavour.
If not.... come on. In what world do you write "(...) I'll find you. Mark my words." In that kind of context without being (at least humorously) threatening?