heheheeh, I had so much fun playing with this 'copyrihght' issue at PSc before.
Here's how it is.
The person who chopped the image has copyright over that image and need not ask anybody permission to use their own work in any way they wish. Be it for another contest or for making money.
The site does however have certain rights to use of your image that do not preclude your rights.
These are called "fair use".
The site owner may use the image in advertising,he can tattoo it on his forehead if he likes.Publishers may use it when referring to PSC, or photoshop techniques, anything that is relevant enough and not for direct profit.
What he can't do is go selling it without your permission.So don't go worrying about a non-issue. Good luck Cher.
I'd be on an art forum if I were you asking this question.

I remember, back when I signed up, there used to be a notice that said the choppers still retained rights to their own submissions. I haven't been able to find it again though.

Anyone know why that was removed? And when? Mods? Old-timers? Hello?

That was one reason I liked PSC over W1K. W1K explicitly says that they get the rights to images you create for their contests (so that he can sell the books full of great chops).

The original holder of the copyright may be the employer of the actual author rather than the author himself if the work is a "work for hire". Again, this principle is widespread; in English law the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 provides that where a work in which copyright subsists is made by an employee in the course of that employment, the copyright is automatically assigned to the employer.

Copyrights are generally enforced by the holder in a civil law court, but there are also criminal infringement statutes. Criminal sanctions are generally aimed at serious counterfeiting activity, but are now becoming more commonplace as copyright collectives such as the RIAA are, more and more, targeting the file sharing home Internet user. Thus far however, these cases have usually been settled outside of court, with demands of payment of several thousand dollars accompanied by nothing more than a threat to sue the file sharer, which will be ruinous to many defendants in practice, thus such cases rarely make their way to civil law courts.

It is important to understand that absence of the copyright symbol does not mean that the work is not covered by copyright. The work once created from originality through 'mental labor' is instantaneously considered copyrighted to that person.