Is duplicate content a concern across multiple CCTLDs?

[eMagineSEO]

Looking for experienced feedback on a new client challenge. Multiple pages of content in the English language are replicated across multiple CCTLDs in addition to the .com address we're working with.

Is duplicate content a concern in this case?

What measures are recommended to help preserve their North American search inclusion while not serving as a detriment to external (European/Asian CCTLDs) properties aimed for other geos/languages?

EDIT: After posting, this was read. Any thoughts? http://searchengineland.com/google-webmaster-tools-provides-details-on-duplicate-content-across-domains-99246

[Gaveltek-173238]

I apologize for #3 completely unrelated advice. Ill edit it

in regards to your last comment I would say be careful with duplicate content that is available to the google crawlers, blocking them is not recommended any longer and they will choose one version to index as opposed to all version on all sites. You (perhaps) could change the content to include the keywords but be re-written. I am sure this is a huge undertaking, and my experience is with the same content translated, not the same content posted to different CCTLD's.

Ive done a really quick search for HP Computers in the UK, USA, and New Zealand. Here are the results:

1. US: http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/prodserv/computers.html
2. UK: http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/home.html

3.  NZ: http://www8.hp.com/nz/en/home.html

while the UK and NZ share a very similar result (essentially no content and the same title tag + the country)
the USA returns a different result, it brings us right to the product page with lots of content. It appears that they have mastered the art of making very similar content appear fresh to the crawlers while providing a very similar and regional user experience.

[eMagineSEO]

Thank you, Todd.

Re: #1 - The content is all in English, but available in other country's CCTLDs that are also English speaking (.au, .co.uk, etc.)

Re: #3 - There's nothing to redirect anywhere, so I am unsure of the redirect advice. If there's a page on the .co.uk website, there's a similar page on the .com site. The viewer of either page wouldn't want to be pushed to a different CCTLD - not should they. Right?

[Gaveltek-173238]

I have some experience in translation and duplicate content, for what its worth:

1. I have not seen duplicate content for Country Code Top level Domains where the content is delivered in multiple languages
2. Keep in mind, while duplicate content is a concern Google does distinguish between useful and malicious:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66359

I am sure most of this isnt terribly helpful, but in the off chance it is, glad it helped!