The major difference between copy and tribute is the show. The optics of creating your band in your honoree's image is HUGE. When I was in the short-lived Southside Johnny tribute there wasn't much in the way of visuals other than the live horns and a singer who sounded just like Johnny. The rest of us were cardboard cutouts. The crowd banter included a lot of references to New Jersey, but all in all there wasn't much in the way of optics to do in that band. Bruce in the USA had a singer who had surgeries to look like Springsteen and made sure to always have a large black man playing sax, but other than that, I mean Max Weinberg was just an anonymous drummer.

I have seen some Aerosmith and Van Halen tribute bands. They dressed the part, had a front man doing the gymnastics that Roth did, a guitar player playing a red Frankenstrat like Eddie did, a bass player with the haircut and beard of Mike Anthony... so the visuals were there.

The Eagles for the most part stood by their mics and played and sang.

AC/DC bands wear knickers and play SGs, with the Agnus actor doing the Chuck Berry ripoff duckwalk.

The Fleetwood Mac tribs have a hot girl playing Stevie, but the downfall there if she can't edit her voice to sound like a sheep, the imagery is right but the audial part missing.

Covers play the music. Tributes do the show.