Hi,
Yes I understand it is frustrating. FWIW, the copy&paste feature is supplied via VMware Tools. That of course depends on it not being blocked in the guest OS (think antivirus).
As you want to copy between guest and host, it also depends on a part which is supplied by VMware Fusion install itself at the host.
This part can also be blocked by antivirus at the host.
The other thing is that you can disable it with settings in your virtual machine config file. To rule that out please attach a vmware.log file from your VM to the reply here. (In Finder, select the VM and from right-click menu select "Show package contents" and you'll find the vmware.log file)
The vmware.log file might have additional tips on why it isn't working.
As for others reporting copy&paste problem. It pretty much always is cured by a re-install of vmware tools.
There are also some linux specific issues (not your problem) and that people have to paste 2 times (not your problem either)
--
Wil