[1] Between 1999 and 2001, after a tip, a US investigation was conducted into Landslide Productions Inc., a Texas-based online pornography portal operated by Thomas and Janice Reedy.
Following the investigation and conviction, "Operation Avalanche" was launched in the US to trace and prosecute child pornography users identified in the Landslide database.
In addition, the website was run for a short time as part of a sting operation by the FBI to capture new suspects.
[2] The FBI also passed identities from the Landslide database to the police organisations of other countries, including 7,272 names to the UK.
In the canton of Zurich, 124 people were found guilty; almost all of them were issued a fine, only ten or less in addition to a conditional prison sentence of a maximum of three weeks.