Now you really are being silly. Most content on the internet doesn't have an explicit license. It's in no way legally dubious to look at it. Code is not special in this regard.
No, you're being disingenuous. Why are you looking at code? It isn't prose you read for fun. You are actively working with it. Which means you're working on some form of derivative work, which takes us back to the copyright issue.
If I'm looking at everything else on the internet with the purpose of trying to transform it in some way, that's definitely a potential copyright issue.
I'm not being disingenuous. It's not quite for fun, but sometimes I do read code to learn from it. Lots of stuff on github is just for portfolio purposes.
Your last sentence basically admits that the fundamental legal situation of code and prose, independent of usage, is the same. If your only possible interest in code is to "transform it in some way", that's your problem, not ours.
If I'm looking at everything else on the internet with the purpose of trying to transform it in some way, that's definitely a potential copyright issue.