The early cases were different in nature to what we're talking about here, and they also took place in a time when there was much less awareness of mass infring

The early cases were different in nature to what we're talking about here, and they also took place in a time when there was much less awareness of mass infringement and there were fewer legal protections for rightsholders against it. Any analogous case today would be tried in the context of the Internet, DMCA, EUCD, etc.