Some great points there Devanur. There is also the option of canonical but the problem is it would mean you're having less pages indexed but one page (the original) would be stronger.
Duplicate content can hurt you but the other side of that is Matt Cutts has mentioned a few times that it wont hurt you unless its spammy, and boiler plate terms you can also normally get away with. For a good nights sleep though its easier just to fix it and know its one less thing to worry about.
Good luck.