Has the legal situation changed significantly? The political situation has, and perhaps that is more important, but its not like the relavent laws have been struck down.

I agree that power imbalance is a significant factor that is different. Fair point.

Why would these parties not easily be deterred by legal concerns? Well there are a variety of groups in this space, many of them are corporate/start ups, and usually they are more adverse to legal risk than your average pseudo-anonoymous citizen.