Okay, so for all intents and purposes it cannot be done programmatically without user assistance.
> You asked "Is there a way to trigger the copy, cut, and paste events?". You don't need to trigger them in this case since the browser automatically fires them when the user invokes the corresponding edit action.
You're right, I apologize.
> Here is a quick sample that works in everything except IE. I'm too impatient to figure out why it doesn't work in IE but http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh772145(v=vs.85).as.... provides IE-centric documentation.
As I mentioned in a previous comment, I've seen nothing that suggest this event allows you to change the contents of what's copied to the clipboard before it happens. From what I can tell this is an notification that it has happened. The link you have provided does not indicate anything to the contrary.
I'm not ruling out that what you're saying, but I still haven't seen something that definitively shows it's possible. Looking at all the hacks and alternatives to make it as close to "click-to-copy" a possible strong suggests it's not.