Isn’t that solid grounds for a civil case?
Interfering with sales or some such?
I think Michael Savage casually mused about that a few weeks ago. It does seem like a crime to interfere with someone's ability to engage in commerce and make a living at an enterprise.
Many millions of dollars go to the Howard Stern and other types and not to the number 20 books---and what if some no.20 books were actually truly doing better at first but were sunk on the lists deliberately so the stores and websites would not bother promoting them further?
And the top TV shows since the 1970s were places to live or die for authors. Store employees had people watch the shows and write down mentions of books and authors so more cartons of books could be rush ordered and the staff would nod and say "yes, right over here..." for a book everyone described but couldn't recall the title or author.