2.1. Non-HTTP Protocols

2.1. Non-HTTP Protocols

An application can rely upon HTTP without meeting the criteria for using it as defined above. For example, an application might wish to avoid re-specifying parts of the message format but might change other aspects of the protocol's operation, or it might want to use application-specific methods.

Doing so permits more freedom to modify protocol operations, but at least a portion of the benefits outlined in Section 3 are lost as most HTTP implementations won't be easily adaptable to these changes. The benefit of mindshare will also be lost.

Such specifications MUST NOT use HTTP's URI schemes, transport ports, ALPN protocol IDs, or IANA registries; rather, they are encouraged to establish their own.