Originally posted by SLY
Playing some covers in clubs or even putting them on a CD of your own recordings is not stealing musical material , as long as you credit the original author and don't claim it's yours...
...Stealing musical material in my opinion is taking some riffs from various sources , play them with slight changes like probably changing the key or something, add new lyrics & claim this is your original writings.

I dunno how the dictionary describes stealing,but the way I understand stealing,it's using something that doesn't belong to you to make some sort of gain without the owners consent.
If you do a remake of "Stairway to Heaven" and put it on your CD,I feel that it doesn't really matter that you acknowledge Led Zep on the CD,coz you're going to make money off something they wrote.And if you don't feel that the fact that they're the ones who wrote is such a big deal,why use their song at all?Why not use your own songs only?Why use a song written,arranged,recorded,produced and marketed by someone else(and these things cost money)?Their input has helped that song become what's it's become,and if that song wasn't what it is,you wouldn't bother using it.That input is what copyright seeks to protect.
I think.