Ethics of competing and solicitation

Do respectable business owners go to their competitors' place of business, or send their employees and friends, to talk with their competitors' customers in an effort to get additional business?

This act is called solicitation and most business prominently display signs stating, "Solicitation and distribution of flyers on this premisses is prohibited."

Let's look at why this is called Solicitation and it's meaning. The New Oxford American Dictionary included with OS X describes it as follows;

solicit |səˈlisit|
verb ( -ited , -iting ) [ trans. ]
ask for or try to obtain (something) from someone : he called a meeting to solicit their views. See note at BEG .
• ask (someone) for something : historians and critics are solicited for opinions by the auction houses.
• [ intrans. ] accost someone and offer one's or someone else's services as a prostitute : [as n. ] ( soliciting) although prostitution was not itself an offense, soliciting was.

So, solicitation essentially means begging. When has begging ever been polite? Hell, prostitutes were thought to be so immoral that this word was applied to them in the last century.

I guess I was brought up different. I strongly believe this type of behavior is immoral. It's certainly not ethical, nor WJWD. I also believe it stinks of desperation and shows off the sleaziness of the snake that engages in it and/or encourages his friends to take part in it.

If you must hangout on a competitors' IRC Network at least have the decency not to promote or discuss your own. If you can't control yourself perhaps you shouldn't tempt yourself by using it. That's the ethical thing to do.