Out of line, or Part of the game PVP Ganking on a PvE server?

So, I play on a PvE server and am a JK Sentinal (mostly Columi gear), and am not really keen on the PVP aspects of the game (have not tried it but have no real urge to do so either). I was on Corellia BlackHole running lvl 50 dailies (which can be frustrating enough), when about 2 minutes into the area, out of nowhere about (what seemed like) a group of at least 8 Imp players were basically ganking single players in PVP and instantly killing them. Basically minding my own business fighting NPCs and BAM! surrounded by about 8 imp PVPers running around just kililng people. I had no warning, no real expectation to be in PVP and no urge to do so, yet suddenly found myself having to rez back at the med center.

It was easy enough to switch instances and not have to run the risk, but to me personally it REALLY took the fun out of the game. I know it may have been fun for them, but I've always believed that its never a good idea to have "fun" at someone else's expense. I guess what I'm asking is this expected behavior on a PVE server? Was I out of line for reporting the player (only had the one name)? If I wanted to be killed at random I would be on a PVP server, or go to a PVP instance, or queue for PVP warzones...but not in the middle of my daily runs.

your thoughts?

I play on a PvE server as well but it's surprising how many yellow nameplate characters I see while doing my dailies on Ilum. I guess they think that since they're on a PvE server, nobody will bother them. They couldn't be more wrong. Usually I'll wait until they engage a group of NPCs, I'll then flag myself for PvP, and then walk in and kill them. Is it a dickish move? Yes but it's perfectly within the rules (and fun).

It actually isn't 100% optional, but close to. Opposing factions can try and force a misclick by standing flagged in enemies you are attacking, or by jumping into your AoE. Even being careful with single target attacks, your companion can get you flagged (a bug that was meant to be fixed apparently, but wasn't).

My preference would be for a non-flagged player to not be able to use any single target attacks and have AoE not hurt flagged players until the flag is manually switched on.

I play on a PvE server as well but it's surprising how many yellow nameplate characters I see while doing my dailies on Ilum. I guess they think that since they're on a PvE server, nobody will bother them. They couldn't be more wrong. Usually I'll wait until they engage a group of NPCs, I'll then flag myself for PvP, and then walk in and kill them. Is it a dickish move? Yes but it's perfectly within the rules (and fun).