As discussed in the forum: https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=6019&offset=0&limit=10#post25683
When you're setting the access for a site page or an institution page, there are checkboxes to allow the page to be automatically copied to new users, new groups, and new institution members.
However, these options are hidden until you tick the "Allow copying?" checkbox. And that's not great for usability because it makes it hard for users to discover these options, or even to find them if they've been told they exist.
At first I was thinking it would be better to disable/enable the checkboxes, rather than showing/hiding them. But on further reflection, it makes even more sense to just unlink them from the "Allow copying" setting altogether. They really do different things, after all. "Allow copying" says that if you have access to view the page, you can choose to make a copy of it in your Portfolio. These other ones say that even if you don't have access to view the page, you get a copy whether you want it or not.
Hm, the "copy to new user" and "copy to new groups" settings are also set up to require that the page be accessible to logged-in users. But that doesn't seem necessary either, so I'll unlike that at the same time.