diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index faf677b..c13cf03 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ Unreleased
   * Switch to GCC's visibility for hiding more implementation details
   * Check GNU ld instead of gcc for exported symbols control logic in
     configure.ac
+  * Disable static builds using Autotools by default. If you want static
+    libraries, pass --enable-static to ./configure
 
 Version 0.2.1 (2021-01-23)
   * Fix incorrect passing of -version-info to libtool, causing a
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 5388fc4..fd7e9de 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ dnl Catch ancient versions of pkg-config below 0.27
 AX_REQUIRE_DEFINED([PKG_INSTALLDIR])
 PKG_INSTALLDIR
 
-LT_INIT
+LT_INIT([disable-static])
 LT_PROG_RC
 
 dnl ====================================================================================