Copy Cell Question

I have a worksheet which has many protected cells. My desire is for these to remain protected when other users utilize this worksheet. If I copy the tab to another worksheet in my existing workbook or to another workbook, the cell protection remains in place. However, if I simply select all cells and copy them to another worksheet, the protection is not existent in the new worksheet. Is there a way to insure that these attributes (cell protection) automatically go along with the new data, or better, is there a way to variably "turn off" copying with an attribute setting.