SUMMARY
NET COPY does not copy permissions along with a file; NET MOVE does. If
you want to keep file permissions intact on a file, use NET MOVE. If you
want the file to have the permissions of the destination directory, use
NET COPY.
DEFAULT PERMISSIONS
A file with default permissions has no explicit Access Control Lists; for
security it uses the permissions of the directory to which it belongs.
NET COPY copies the file to a directory, where the file is given the
permissions of the new directory. NET MOVE moves the file and its original
default permissions to a new directory, where the permissions are made
explicit.
EXPLICIT PERMISSIONS
If files have explicit ACLs, NET COPY does not copy them when it copies the
file; the file inherits the permissions of the destination directory. NET
MOVE moves the permissions for the file.
EXAMPLE
For example, the directory C:\TEST1 has permissions USERS : RCWDAP.
Two files exist in C:\TEST1, FILE1 and FILE2. They are using the
default permissions for the directory. Directory C:\TEST2 has no
permissions.
If you use the commands
net copy c:\test1\file1 c:\test2
net move c:\test1\file2 c:\test2
the result is that C:\TEST2\FILE1 has no permissions, and the file
C:\TEST2\FILE2 has explicit permissions of USERS : RCWDAP.
If the files had explicit permissions, the end result would be the
same. FILE1 would have no permissions because it used the NET COPY
command, and FILE2 would have the explicit permissions that it had
under the old directory.