Hi, I would be very grateful if someone could answer my query. I am making a personal website for a friend of mine and they have already uploaded an extensive description/bio about themselves on a free actor directory website. He wants to use the same phrasing and content from this free site to put on his official (new) website (that I am currently designing). If he deletes his page on the actor directory and waits a few days then sends all the text that he wrote on it my way and I put it up on his official website will this count as duplicate content (even though the original 'source' of the content has been deleted) and thus, be penalized by google and other search engines?
Sounds like it would be fine as other content is gone so the duplication is gone to. And as unna said you can always edit/rewrite if oyu are worried.
Maybe wait until the old content is recognised as removed by Google. Test this by using complex search strings like 'site:sitecontentwasremovedby.com "string from content"'
you can redirect old website(free one) to website you are currently designing. do 301-permanent redirect from old website url to new website url. Hope this helps you.
I think the OP had his question answered jaewun. So to slightly hijack a mo please elaborate RE > 'site:sitecontentwasremovedby.com "string from content"'
Use it on his website but dont index those sites, after few days you can index them and everything should be fine