Well yes, they kind of did have those powers, thanks to the passing of the Pro IP act in 2008, which allows them to take town .com, .org and .net websites. SOPA

Well yes, they kind of did have those powers, thanks to the passing of the Pro IP act in 2008, which allows them to take town .com, .org and .net websites. SOPA would've just allowed them to take down foreign sites. They already have the power because the Internet wasn't awake enough at the time. But that's alright. What's important is that first we stop this trend - not a single law like this passes anymore. And then we try to reverse the trend - repeal Pro IP, overhaul copyright laws, etc.