I'm sympathetic to that argument, but this isn't about demanding access, this is about incentives / soft encouragement.
Many websites today have readable JavaScript because that's the natural thing to do; you just send down the JavaScript source in the original form and it runs.
Many native applications today have unreadable source because that's the natural thing to do; you compile your C or C++ code, and you only need to ship the binary. Your binary even gets smaller if you remove debugging symbols.
You can do otherwise in both cases (obfuscaters in the former, provide source in the latter) but it requires an active decision to do so. Much fewer software authors make the conscious decision to leave their source code readable or unreadable based on what they want a priori. Same with server- vs. client-side development; you can easily hide all your source by keeping it server-side, but for the sake of some technical goal people will decide to move parts client-side, and decide that having it be world-readable is okay.
OP is advocating for a world where people continue to default to providing their source, not one where people are compelled to.
If you render to a canvas rather than generate plain text, then I have to use screen readers with built-in OCR to perform "copy," which is a pain. It doesn't protect you, but it makes my experience worse.
What we're learning from music and movies is that any movement to try to restrict users just leads to user flight; any movement that opens up and enables users to have a great experience with your IP, leads to user delight.
Many websites today have readable JavaScript because that's the natural thing to do; you just send down the JavaScript source in the original form and it runs.
Many native applications today have unreadable source because that's the natural thing to do; you compile your C or C++ code, and you only need to ship the binary. Your binary even gets smaller if you remove debugging symbols.
You can do otherwise in both cases (obfuscaters in the former, provide source in the latter) but it requires an active decision to do so. Much fewer software authors make the conscious decision to leave their source code readable or unreadable based on what they want a priori. Same with server- vs. client-side development; you can easily hide all your source by keeping it server-side, but for the sake of some technical goal people will decide to move parts client-side, and decide that having it be world-readable is okay.
OP is advocating for a world where people continue to default to providing their source, not one where people are compelled to.