Do you think unpaid internships are unfair?

When creative director Florian Bacheda of FB Design was asked "What do you think the biggest ethical issues are that graphic design students can expect to face in their careers?” He responded with the following: “I think the biggest ethical issue will be from a managerial perspective. Some bigger corporations will try to use the recession as an excuse to place more work on the shoulders of fewer people. Creatives in managerial positions that work for these corporations must balance the reasonable requests that some of them make in response to the recession with the ones that are borderline exploitative. The junior designers in the field need to decide if they are being asked to be part of an understandably lean and mean operation, or if they are being taken advantage of.”Bacheda raises an issue that is also being discussed by design educators and practitioners regarding unpaid internships. AIGA Philadelphia has started a movement to support the ethical treatment of professional designers and students in the workplace. They are asking designers to take a pledge to stop posting unpaid internships to their job boards and websites.Students are eager to get "real-world" experience. Design professionals often complain about the skills that design students fresh out of school lack. Education is important, but most designers will attest to the fact that the most critical education they received was on the job. The opportunity for student internships is often a motivating factor when choosing a design school. Is it fair to entirely eliminate the opportunity for unpaid internships? What if during these trying economic times design studios can't afford to pay their interns, won't this limit opportunities available for students?Shel Perkins wrote an informative article entitled "Be Smart about Student Internships" on AIGA's "Center for Practice Management" website. Perkins points out the differences between interns, volunteers, and paid employees and how when set up properly having an intern often results in more time spent training and educating them than work being produced by them, and that this is how it should be. The primary purpose of an internship is the education and training of the student. If a design studio feels they may be asking their intern to do work that does not contribute to their education and training they should pay them at least minimum wage.Perkins' article offers a detailed explanation of the Federal requirements for an internship program. He also talks about the mutual benefits that both students and employers can gain through an internship program that complies with these requirements.What do you think? Are unpaid internships are unfair? Does it make a difference if they are students or professionals?