For me, this is merely an issue of the employee not having the right tool to sell to his employer. In principle, the company is willing to pay for that problem

For me, this is merely an issue of the employee not having the right tool to sell to his employer. In principle, the company is willing to pay for that problem to be solved, and the employee has the solution for it. All cards on the table, both parts might be able to find an even better arrangement (for example, for the nature of the work it might be better tax-wise to turn this into royalties, or to sell the software for a large amount of cash upfront, or whatever). The real tragedy here is that neither side can find a solution that is optimal for both, given the circumstances, and both get into this charade. Not to mention that other parts of the businesses could use his expertise of automation, which means that both the employee and the employer have economic value to create and thus value to split amongst themselves. Moral be damned, until you can buy things at the grocery store with it.