There is more to copying

An assignment only creates a “binding” (an association) between a name and a “target” (object of some type). A copy is sometimes necessary so you can change the value of one object without changing the other (when two names are pointing to the same object).

# Assignment: bind the name y to 
# the list [1, 2].
y = [1, 2 ]
# Create another binding - 
# bind the name x to the same 
# object that y is currently bound to.
x = y 
# x[0 ] is changed too, when y[0 ] is. 
y[0] = 99
print(x[0])
# 99

The copy module has methods to support both shallow and deep copying of objects.

To create a shallow copy (construct a new object, but references to the objects found in the original are inserted):

from copy import copy

y = [1, 2 ]
x = copy(y)
# note that x = y.copy() works
y[0] = 99
print(x[0])
# 1

To create a deep copy (instead of references, multiple copies are used):

from copy import deepcopy
#...
x = deepcopy(y)