The search engine's love content....just not duplicate content. Google claims there is no such thing as negative SEO. They don't punish sites Rather they don't reward sites with duplicate content. This is like saying "No Dessert" is not a punishment, but instead you weren't rewarded.

There is a white hat way to "have your cake and eat it too". If one of the sites adds additional content to each page (at least 200 words) or simply rewrites the content, it will most likely not be viewed as duplicate content. You both can get SEO credit. Finding a writer to do this should be very easy on oDesk or Zerys. Depending on the technical aspects of the content, you might even be able to find a college intern to work on the project.