What exactly does this copyright paragraph mean?

"M***** respects copyright law and expects our users to do the same. Unauthorized copying, distribution, modification, public display, or public performance of copyrighted works is an infringement of the copyright holders' rights. You should be aware that some image files might have been created or distributed without copyright owner authorization. As a condition to your use of the online*********.com system, you agree that you will not use the online*********.com service to infringe the intellectual property rights of others in any way."

I uploaded a picture of myself onto a dating site last month. Recently I noticed that other members of the site can email pictures outside of the site. When I asked the staff about my right to privacy, I was told there was nothing they could do. I found this paragraph in their terms of agreement. Do I have a right to have my picture ONLY on their site? (By the way, the pictures can be sent to ANY email, not just affiliate sites!)

Any one can download any picture from any website, without the website knowledge, and the website has no control over this, and they really can do nothing about it.

What I understand from the paragraph is that the website is not responsible if others infringe on copyright laws; however, it is not claiming to go after those who violate copyright laws.

I would assume there is another part of that same agreement which states you lose the right to your image, at least the ones you provide to them to be primarily used on your profile, and that they may use your image for promotional purposes. If you have been on MSN, you might have noticed that their personal's often advertise actual members. It's possible there's a way of opting out of your profile being featured, but as to your question about intellectual property, I don't think such a right is automatically inferred.

They're covering their bases. It's saying that by signing up, you're also agreeing that you won't infringe any copyrights you may find on their site, which are on there with or without the copyright owner's permission. What they told you is because they can't copyright your picture, nor can your picture protected by their copyright.

My interpretation is that they do not want anyone to post copyrighted items on their site. Since they respect the copyright laws, they do not want you to violate the law by using someone else's copyrighted items by posting it on their site. This is not saying that everything on the site is copyrighted, this would include your photograph. This warning is for you and other users to not put copyrighted items on the site. As for other people taking photos off the site, this is not what it is addressing. They would have no way to track every single person who has copied a photo from their site. YouTube is the same way. As soon as they find that a user has posted something that is copyrighted, they pull it immediately. This is to protect themselves from lawsuits, not to protect your privacy.