Many months ago, I was reading the WoW forums and came across this topic:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/10671887317?page=1
It doesn't directly deal with pets. Someone had bought a Jeweled Panther and was worried about repercussions. What caught my eye was the discussion. Especially where someone had gone back and copy/pasted several blue posts on the subject. It got me to thinking that maybe there was a bit of a semantic argument going on here.
While Blizzard maintains that nothing is duped, they say that things are either taken from hacked accounts or acquired by an exploit. You call it a dupe, they call it an exploit. But it could essentially be the same thing. That's why I think the word "stolen" is more appropriate. Because whether it is stolen from a hacked account or someone has used an exploit to obtain an item, if you get something without paying for it, that is generally considered to be stealing.
That's where I think the word "dupe" becomes a crutch. I'm sure some folks would consider it to be Blizzard's fault. They were lazy with their code design or not aggressive enough with policing, so it's fair game. As if the person exploiting just pulled one over on Blizzard and they aren't smart enough to do anything about it. But buying stolen goods has a negative stigma and makes you think twice about it.
However. Most of us are collectors of some sort and at some price we will abandon our morals and buy it anyway. I can be as much of a bluenose as anyone, but if I saw a spectral tiger cub on the AH for 1 copper, I'd buy it. Because at that point, duped or stolen, the ne'er do-well isn't profiting off it much anyway. At least that's what I'd tell myself.
And that's pretty much where I find myself now. A certain pet is showing up at a quantity and price point that really tempts me. For a long time I've thought that I would just forgo certain pets because there was a high probability they were hot goods of one form or another. I have to admit, I'm wavering. But I do wonder what folks think about this.