While dropping the items is one way it could work, an alternative would be to use a system similar to the current mining system. I'm not sure how doable it is, as I'm not sure exactly how Cannon's mining mod works (do you have to have a zone, or can you do it with any lootable (i.e., a wreck)?), but it might be possible set it up so that shooting the wreck caused the items to teleport directly to your cargo.
The only issue I can see with this is the potential for abuse. It would be fairly easy to get two battleships - one shieldless and armorless - and have the strong one kill the weak one repeatedly by a high scrap sell point while someone sits by and mines and sells the scrap.
There are any number of solutions to this problem. Stopping any given ship from dropping loot more often than every four hours would be obvious. Ships could also be prevented from dropping anything if they've taken more than 25% of their damage from a ship that died within four hours. Obviously, Connecticut and Guard systems would have to be excluded from all of this (especially death counts and droppage) due to training.
If properly implemented, though, and if actually profitable, this has the potential to be good.