It is completely untrue , I have attended yahoo interview and put the questions in my website , some idiot blogger copied it , got some good comments , the great google started ranking the blog on top for six months for keywords like yahoo interview question ,etc So since few people comment on his blog , google thought it to be more lively content than that of original content.
Duplicate content will never be penalised due to the nature of the net, it may give less credit in the future, but there is no notable drawbacks at the moment.
I would have to completely disagree (and I'm sorry to disagree on a fellow LFC fan's comment ). Dupe content IS penalized, once: A. it's caught B. if it's considered penalty material I have succesfully reported sites duping my content and saw them going from rank 1-5 in the SI. The SE's don't have a problem with handling dupe content, they have a problem with catching it and determining original against duped.
Well I have two words... "Song Lyrics" There are heaps of song lyrics websites and they obviously all have the same content, are they penalised? I don't think so.
All of you article writes, stop being shy and use 113Directory as depository for your articles as well.