The meaning of the sentence "By posting any content to this site you irrevocably licence Hampel Group to reproduce, edit or distribute that content in any form in any location worldwide, and you waive any moral rights you have in that content." seems to be rather wider than you suggest.
Yes, I understand what you are saying.
The problem we face as internet publishers is that nature in which content (in this case, photos) gets published and distributed as a result of being put on a website.
It's not just as simple as "web page with photo displayed in a web browser". There are lots of different ways to view a web site, including on mobile devices and tablets, on televisions, and even on fridges these days!
Similarly, the as a result of being published on our website, the photo becomes viewable anywhere in the world that you can connect to the internet.
What's more, the image gets reproduced in a variety of (digital) forms on our website and in search engine results and so on.
If we were to publish a mobile phone app to view content on our site, the nature of the publication then changes as well - we need to make sure we are covered there too.
The "moral rights" part is possibly causing some concern - and that is a difficult one. I've not retained legal advice on this, I can only go on what I've read online and what I see other sites doing in their terms and conditions.
My understanding of Moral Rights in relation to copyright is that you have the right, as the creator or author of a work, to claim authorship and prevent alteration or modification of the work in such a way that may detract from the original intent or your relationship with that work.
This is where it gets tricky though. How do you define "alteration or modification"? Does resizing the image to thumbnail size count? If that resizing process somehow automatically crops the photo, is that considered a derogatory modification?
It gets even more complicated when you consider that you can consider photographs to have two sets of copyright contained in them - the photo itself, and the subject of the photo. In many cases, zoos claim copyright of the subject and if you take a photo of anything at their zoo, they reserve the right to use that photo for their own purposes.
Some even try to assert that you may not use photos taken at the zoo for commercial purposes without prior authorisation (and usually a hefty fee for permission).
So where we stand as publishers of photos that you may not even have full copyright over in the first place, is even more complicated!
My argument is that, since we are merely sharing the photos for personal/community purposes, and are not publishing the photos themselves for profit, then it is okay. I don't feel that the zoos are being commercially harmed by what we do on ZooChat - indeed, most of them are being benefited by the promotion they receive on this site.
That still doesn't answer the moral rights question - and I'm not exactly sure how it works in all cases.
At the end of the day though - we do NOT claim ownership or authorship of your photos and ultimate (economic) copyright remains with the person who owns the photo (notwithstanding the complication of subject copyright previously mentioned). I think this could be better communicated in the terms.
I realise that this is only intended to protect ZooChat from unfair or unreasonable accusations, and I am quite sure that no exploitation is intended.
Indeed - that is exactly what it is intended to do. In uploading a photo, you give us the right to do with it what you expect us to do - publish it on our site in all the many and varied ways and means that entails in the modern internet.
I think I should probably go back and revisit the terms of use for the site and make things more explicit and less wordy, exactly what we claim and what we don't. Looking at Yahoo's terms of use for Flickr, I think they word it better.
However I prefer to retain all the rights for my favourite photos.
Yes, that is completely fine. If you are not comfortable with sharing your images online, then don't upload them!
PS. never upload your photos to Facebook without carefully considering their terms of use - last time I looked (admittedly a few years ago), it was quite nasty!
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