UW News

July 20, 2006

Newsmakers

UNPAID INTERNS: A May 30 article in The New York Times took up the issue of internships, especially those without pay, and their effect on individual careers and the work culture in general.

The article noted that internships can raise employment expectations among young workers who seem less willing than previous generations to work their way up from the bottom. But it also noted, conversely, that interships also can “promote overidentification with employers: I make sacrifices for my work, therefore I must love my work.”

The Times then quoted Gina Neff, UW assistant professor of Communications (referring to her as a sociologist), who has studied coping strategies among interns and calls such bonding “performative passion.” Maybe that’s why, the newspaper speculated, educated workers in the U.S. these days are less likely to organize.

WHOSE ART IS IS, ANYWAY? UW lecturer and copywright lawyer Karrin Klotz was quoted in a recent New York Times article about the legal case between famous glass artist Dale Chihuly and two other glass artists, including his one-time collaborator Bryan Rubino.

At question is whether Rubino violated Chihuly’s copyright by creating his own blown-glass creations inspired by creatures of the sea. Rubino says that just because one artist is inspired by the sea does not mean others cannot be, too. “If anything, Mother Nature should be suing Dale Chihuly,” he told The Times.

But Klotz, The Times reported, said there was precedent for Chihuly’s claim, that Picasso was able to copyright a mere few lines on a pad because they were so distinct. “He is depicting things like flowers and sea forms that may be derived from nature, but the way he shapes them can be protected.”