Legal Question in Technology Law in California

The key to answering your question is not to focus on the method you use, but the substance of what it is you are doing. Section 106(1) of the Copyright Act gives the copyright holder, subject to certain specific limitations, the exclusive right to reproduce, or authorize the reproduction of, the author's works into copies. Whether the reproduction is done by downloading or by webcam capture makes absolutely no difference. Consider a copyrighted 4-line poem on a piece of paper. Reproducing it by photocopying, by tracing, or by writing it on a mirror from memory using listick, are all examples of one thing: reproduction of the work into a copy. How indirect is is makes no difference either. If a friend recited the poem to another friend over the phone, and that friend recited it to you and you wrote it down, it is still a "reproduction of the work into a copy" once you are finished.

I agree......your interpretation of the law is NOT correct. If it were, subverting the intent of the law -- to protect artists and creative people's property rights -- would be all too easy. The scope of protection afforded by copyright law is much broader, and necessarily so.