If a PPA package is copied to a different suite in the same repo before builds are published, the builds will never be published in the new suite

You haven't copied the binaries, since you can't copy unpublished stuff, the message rendered on the top of the page when you copied told you so.
Copy the source and the binaries again from gutsy to hardy, now that the binaries are published, the previously copied source will be superseded and hardy will remain with the same packages you have in gutsy.

My main concern with this is that if you perform this copy without the binaries, and the version is already present, it simply won't be built - you'll have the sources published in the new series, but the binaries won't come unless you realize the error and do the copy again. At the least there should be some sort of warning about copying packages w/o binaries within the same PPA...

Ok, you want a error to be raised when the 'copy binaries' checkbox is selected but one or more selected sources do not have binaries to copy. Would that help ?

That would help, but I'd be concerned about what the expected behavior is if you copy without binaries within the same PPA as well. If it doesn't build, what would be the point?

Perhaps:
  * Error out if one copies a package to a PPA which already has the same package at the same version (in any suite) unless:
    = It is an identical source package
    = copy binaries is selected
    = and: binaries are available for all architectures listed in the debian/control file at time of copy

The last might be best doing a deferred copy of the corresponding binaries if they're not available at the time, though this is not vital immediately. It's just that I wouldn't expect a copy to result in the source package being updated but the binaries remaining where they were previously (or being left nonexistent), and this case should probably be prevented.

RF 6303

Is this fix already active? I copied a package in my PPA on May 16 from Gutsy to Hardy. The Gutsy package was long before compiled and published by PPA.

No, the fix is not active in production yet. It'll probably be active on edge.launchpad.net in the next 24 hours, and active on the main launchpad.net site in early June. The bug status will be updated to "Fix Released" when the latter happens.

Sounds good. If you notify me when the patch is active on edge I can test it if you want.