
Throughout the series, other rules are revealed, one of the most prominent being, "When the same name is written on more than one Death Note, the Note which was first filled in will take effect, regardless of the time of death." This rule played an important role in the movie, as L used it to prevent Kira from killing him. Though the main rules cover the Death Note's basic function, several secondary rules govern how the Death Note operates in conjunction with other Death Notes or how it can be used. Light uses the second rule to prevent the team from destroying the Death Note. Light uses the first rule to convince the investigation team that because the killings had stopped for two weeks while he was imprisoned, he could not possibly be Kira.

If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a Heart attack.If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.


This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name.The human whose name is written in this note shall die.Before the series begins, Ryuk writes instructions in English inside his Death Note with the belief that English is the most popular language in the human world.
