[swecker]

"I know of a few businesses that build these internships into their model as a way of keeping costs down."

According to those regulations posted we see that a business can't legally have an unpaid intern to keep costs down. The pros for an unpaid intern would be; 'Intern gets experience,' and 'business has potential future employee.' Whereas the pros for a paid intern would be; 'Intern gets experience plus compensation,' and 'business gets profitable labor, and has potential future employee.'

[zecho]

You're absolutely right, but it's hard to enforce. I'm not saying it's right, but this kind of thing happens all the time in old media jobs and elsewhere. For example, if I brought you in as an intern and showed you how to write a story that's technically training, but your story may very well displace another reporter's story, too. Young workers live with it because they want to build portfolios and work experience.