As a content owner, I had no idea readability was doing this. Like Peter Thiel says, the distribution is sometimes the hardest problem.
The idea isn't a bad one, and just because the domain owners never registered doesn't mean the idea can't work. It just means most domain owners probably don't even know about this.
Yeah, I am familiar with Readability but didn't know they had this program.
I think for the guys signing up and getting a 15 cent check, their form should also have the option of the site owner saying it's OK to just give the amount less than $1 or whatever to the charity since the cost of handling the check isn't really worth it on either end.
The idea isn't a bad one, and just because the domain owners never registered doesn't mean the idea can't work. It just means most domain owners probably don't even know about this.