I have used the COPY command dozens of times! I think I *get* it. But, I'm getting "permission denied" errors.
This is a fresh install of Fedora Core 4 (x86). I have Postgresql running under the user postgres. I am logged into to psql as postgres. The files are owned by postgres and are -rw-------. They are being found - it isn't a "file not found" error.
Turn off or configure SELinux. The default policy prohibits PostgreSQL from reading files from "weird" places, like /tmp/ or similar.