I think they love themselves too much.  Putting it off to the side allows ease of copying the left side of the image.  Sure, having the direct link plastered on there is great, but it might be hard for a buyer to see clearly with that over 1/3 of the image.  Also, gty.im isn't a logo, particularly.

But then again, not all images have central composition...I like it, but I agree, the protection is not as good as it was.

Did you watch the video? They seem to think that this watermark is going to change the perception that they're an old media company into something relevant to the digital age. They also mention their valuable contributors - Ha! That's a lot to expect from a watermark...

It's funny that helix7 notes that he thinks it makes comping more difficult, because to me it makes it looks as if stealing (for the dishonest) will be a ton easier for many images as the coverage area is so very small. How well can you have done if both user and contributor think it's a step back?

Also, gty.im isn't a logo, particularly.

It's the web address for the image, not sure they're considering using it as the logo, when you enter the address in the search bar it takes you to the appropriate image on their site which then has the usual Gettyimages logo as the watermark.

Just register on Gettyimages and you can download all 80 million comps without watermark.