COPY fails to read source file

Hello all:

Using 6.5.3, SuSE 6.4, logged in as 'billb'.

Here are 2 instances of the COPY command;

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
copy custprofile from '/home/billb/custpr.txt' using delimiters ';';
The result is:
ERROR: COPY command, running in backend with with effective uid 26, could
not open '/home/billb/custpr.txt' for reading. Errno = Permission denied
(13).
The file looks like
-rw-r--r-- 1 billb users 58902 May 16 11:45 /home/billb/custpr.txt

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
copy custprofile from '/mnt/DOS_C/sybase/custpr.txt' using delimiters ';';
The result is:
COPY
The file looks like
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 58902 May 16 11.56 /mnt/DOS_C/sybase/custpr.txt

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second instance gave me the results I wanted, but why did the first
instance fail? If anything, I would have expected permission denied on the
root owner. I have had the same results on other ocassions.

What am I missing?

TIA
Bill Barnes

------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent to you courtesy of OperaMail, a
free web-based service from Opera Software, makers of
the award-winning Web Browser - http://www.operasoftware.com
------------------------------------------------------------