Meaning of copying

Welcome! Interesting question.

To copy strictly speaking means to reproduce in some way. Even to have read it means to have copied it into your mind if only briefly. If someone is copying something down then they have either just seen it or have seen it at an earlier time. If they were writing something down and you asked the source they could say where they saw the text earlier but they would probably not say they were copying it. Just recording it or keeping notes.

Copying does seem to imply reading in a way that just writing does not. It has the sensation of taking from if only reading, in order to record again.

The word copying stands for the act of writing only, but it conceptually includes the reading that precedes it. In other words, one applies the word to the act of writing (and not the reading), but one cannot apply it to the writing unless the writing was preceded by the reading. It should be noted that the word copying is normally used only when one has the original in front of oneself as one is writing down its contents, so the reading precedes the writing only by a few seconds.

It's from Copy here are some definitions

1. To make a copy or copies of; to write; print, engrave, or paint after an original; to duplicate; to reproduce; to transcribe; as, to copy a manuscript, inscription, design, painting, etc.; -- often with out, sometimes with off.

2. To imitate; to attempt to resemble, as in manners or course of life.

Source : Copying definitions