Time's run out for net neutrality supporters hoping to restore Obama-era regulations using a legislative loophole, but the fight's far from over as it heads to federal appeals court.

Democrats in the House of Representatives failed to gather enough votes by the end of the year to use the Congressional Review Act to undo the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of the popular rules. The Republican-led agency voted a year ago this month to repeal the rules adopted in 2015, which were designed to ensure that all traffic on the internet was treated equally. 

The FCC, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, an appointee of President Donald Trump, argued that the "heavy-handed" rules deterred internet service providers' investment and innovation. (Read Pai's op-ed on CNET here.)

But supporters of net neutrality say the internet as we know it may not exist much longer without the protections. Big tech companies, such as Google and Facebook, and internet luminaries, such as web creator Tim Berners-Lee, fall into that camp. Since the repeal, they've been working in Congress and in state legislatures to reinstate the rules.