Using Free Content: Yay or Nay?

Using Pre-written Articles

[jpell]

I came across a site that offers articles free to reproduce on your website. I took a heading from an article, queried google, and the first 50 or so results were exact copies of the article, all different domains, and all with assorted PR ranging from 5 to 1. I write my own content, but was thinking along with my original stuff, I could grow my site much faster using some of their stuff too. Obviously G doesn't care too much about duplicate content, do any of the other SE's penalise? Is there a disadvantage?
As a surfer, would you consider a site less credible if you came across duplicate content for your keyword? Thanks for your thoughts.

[Yidaki]

What about rewording the free content and expanding / mixing it with your own research? Having the same content as tons of other sites smells cheesy and wouldn't bring you much - how would you convince searchers that they should click on your listing if the title and snippet reads the same as the other results on the results page? I'd go for unique content or at least unique wording.

[quotations]

Most of the sites where you find such content have terms of service which require you to leave the article unchanged and leave the information about and links to the author intact.

Be sure to read carefully before using and act accordingly.