Aug 03, 2013 07:10 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Unpaid internships may not be dead yet, despite a court decision that ruled in favor of two Fox Searchlight Pictures interns receiving wages, Inside Higher Ed reported.

Since the decision, there was a rash of speculation that unpaid internships would slowly die out, but that is not likely to be the case. The two "interns" were actually men in their 40s who left their jobs to get into film production.

"They were employees," Robert Shindell, vice president and chief learning officer of the research and consulting firm Intern Bridge, wrote on his blog. "That's how the judge ruled it -- and I think he got it right."

Despite the U.S. District Court's decision on the interns, who happened to be working on the set of "Black Swan," added fuel to existing lawsuits. Since the ruling, companies like Gawker, Conde Nast and Atlantic Records have received suits from unpaid interns.

Experts say those fighting for wages in previously unpaid intern positions are losing sight of the important experience those volunteer positions are meant to provide. Many internships are even set up through a school to provide college credits.

"With a true academic internship, there is a built-in accountability between the institution of higher education, the employer and the student," said Michael True, director of the internship center at Messiah College. "There are nonprofit organizations that can hardly afford to pay their own staff, much less pay an intern. But they get a great experience and the students who are able to do it participate in those and benefit from them."

The people who are winning their court cases, however, are often removed from college.

"The definition of intern always includes the word student or academic or some form of these two things," Shindell said in an interview. "[Black Swan] is an employee law case -- plain and simple -- it has nothing to do with internships. But because they added in those words, all of a sudden everybody's up in arms about it."

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