Back in the day (like 10yrs back) people used to say that photographs (images) of people are haram, even though everyone has television sets in their home. Now today in a social media world where everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc with their selfies and pix of friends and families, I don't hear that anymore. I even remember Sheikh Hamza Yusuf back in the 90s quoting a hadith that said an angel would not enter a house with a picture (image) of a human in it.
Today I don't know, I really don't... but to me it seems like it is perhaps an extreme position that is not obligatory on a matter that can no longer be maintained in a 21st Century world, so now its been discarded. Perhaps before, like a 100 years ago it wasn't considered as extreme, but today it is. I dunno.