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Really...

I have never seen this in Webmaster Tools, even with very similar Title tags.

No that's not a duplicate title.

Duplicate <title>tags are exact copies which appear on multiple pages on your website.</p> <p>Each page should have a unique Page Title which effectively describes the content of the page... Titles should be no longer than 70 - 85 Characters in length.</p> <p>One area where duplicate title tags are common is with dynamic content, eCommerce sites which use product filtering for example might cause duplicate content (not just the title tag).</p> <p>There is a danger that any dynamic URL will produce duplicate content, if two versions get indexed by the search engines... eg:</p> <p>www.somewebsite.co.uk/index.php?cPath=89&zenid=rbkma1v62ra64qrpfhc3lsm774<br /><br />&<br /><br />www.somewebsite.co.uk/index.php</p> <p>Also be aware that if the www. redirect isn't in place on a website it may also produce duplicate content and title tags.</p> <p>www.somesite.co.uk/page.html</p> <p>&</p> <p>somesite.co.uk/page.html</p></title>

In my opinion the only reason you would want to keep the file paths the same for the images on your pages is if you are actively seeking to gain (or retain) traffic from Google Image search....

I cant see any other reason to keep them, as i understand it the URL is only important for the page.. not the elements on it.

eg... www.somesite.co.uk/directory/page.html

A few more questions

1. Are they all hosted on the same server / IP address?
2. Are they all registered by the same domain registra / same company or person?
3. Is the content duplicated too? Or have you Spun the content?
4. Are the links low quality?
5. Do the sites all have the "same" links? (Have you submitted multiple templated sites to the same directories etc...)

Using that CSS wouldn't Hide it from the spiders view, it will simply "move" the H1 off the screen.

It is a pretty old "trick".

Lets not forget Heading tags are useful to site visitors to so shouldn't necessarily be hidden to them.

Users will use the headings whilst they Scan read your pages, if they can't quickly identify what the page content is about there is a danger they could simply bounce off... and you will lose them.

As for Search engines penalising you for it, I'm not too sure, is there any research which anybody can point us towards? I dont think they are reading CSS attributes just yet right?

Andy

In my opinion the only reason you would want to keep the file paths the same for the images on your pages is if you are actively seeking to gain (or retain) traffic from Google Image search....

I cant see any other reason to keep them, as i understand it the URL is only important for the page.. not the elements on it.

eg... www.somesite.co.uk/directory/page.html