diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/issue-3518 b/changelog/unreleased/issue-3518
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5a8edc4ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/issue-3518
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Bugfix: Make copy command honor `--no-lock` for source repository
+
+When passing the `--no-lock` flag to the copy command, restic still attempted
+to lock the source repository, causing failures on read-only storage backends.
+`--no-lock` is now respected and copy then no longer creates a lock in the
+source repository.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/3518
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/3589
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_copy.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_copy.go
index d16cd1742..030abc37d 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_copy.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_copy.go
@@ -73,10 +73,12 @@ func runCopy(opts CopyOptions, gopts GlobalOptions, args []string) error {
 		return err
 	}
 
-	srcLock, err := lockRepo(ctx, srcRepo)
-	defer unlockRepo(srcLock)
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
+	if !gopts.NoLock {
+		srcLock, err := lockRepo(ctx, srcRepo)
+		defer unlockRepo(srcLock)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
 	}
 
 	dstLock, err := lockRepo(ctx, dstRepo)