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Here is the section I wrote for the NEWS file on this issue. Does this seem accurate, clear, and fair? * Changes to the distribution ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default. Because of the terms of Readline's license, we felt that it was deceptive to users for Guile to include Readline support by default. Readline support will instead be offered as a separate module, which users must explicitly request. Although Guile is GNU software, it is distributed under a weakened version of the GNU General Public License. To make it possible for Guile to compete with Tcl, Guile's license includes a clause which allows you to link Guile with programs distributed under terms other than the GPL. In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the full-strength GNU General Public License. This means that you may not link Readline, even dynamically, into any code unless it is also distributed under the GPL. If linking against Guile caused users to automatically link against Readline, then Readline's license would require users to distribute their code under the full GPL, leaving Guile's advertised weaker license irrelevant. We felt it was unfair to advertise a weak license, but have Guile's default configuration actually require the full GPL.