How do you safely syndicate content?

If I want to syndicate content from some partner sites and plant links back to them, what is the safest way to do this without getting crushed by google? I know that it will be duplicate content, but I am not trying to take credit for the content.

Please let me know when you can.

Syndicate a synopsis
Use the NoIndex meta tag
Divide your content development efforts.
Use the cross domain canonical t