Copying is a creative act. Artist have copied other works to learn because painting is a process of thinking. Thinking through paint. In copying there is always change. Change is the engine of creativity.  Genetic behaviors, mimicry and parroting also have elements of creativity. Through repetition they express difference and variation. Even the most seemly predictable and repetitive behaviors and actions are creative. If not, life would not be able to adapt and survive in a world that presents ever changing circumstance. Without it (creativity) life would not exist.