I.   This note shall become the property of the human world once it touches the ground in the human world.

II.   The owner of a Death Note can recognize the image and voice of the original Shinigami owner. The human who touches the Death Note can recognize the image and voice of this Shinigami owner, even if the human is not the owner of the note.

III.   Whenever a Shinigami in the human world dies and leaves behind its Death Note, the note's finder automatically becomes the owner. However, in this case, only a human who can see and hear that Shinigami is able to see and touch the Death Note. It is very unlikely, but if, by any chance, another Shinigami picks up the Death Note, that Shinigami becomes the owner.

IV.   If you lose the Death Note or have it stolen, you will lose its ownership unless you can retrieve it within 490 days.

V.   When the owner of the Death Note dies while the note is on loan, its ownership will be transferred to the person who is holding it at that time. If the Death Note is stolen and the owner is killed by the thief, its ownership will automatically be transferred to the thief.

VI.   The individuals who lose ownership of a Death Note will also lose their memories of it. However, this does not mean that they will lose all memories from the period of ownership: they will only lose the memories involving the Death Note.

VII.   When an individual with ownership of more than two Death Notes loses possession of one of them, he will no longer be able to recognize or hear that Death Note's Shinigami anymore. The Shinigami will leave, but all the memories involving the Death Note will remain with the owner as long as he maintains ownership of at least one other Death Note.

VIII.   If a person loses possession of a Death Note, he will not recognize its Shinigami by sight or voice anymore. However, if the owner lets someone else touch that Death Note, from that time on, that person will continue to recognize the Shinigami's appearance and voice until he or she actually becomes the owner of the Death Note and subsequently loses possession of it.

IX.   When regaining ownership of a Death Note, the memories associated with it will also return. In cases where the owner was involved with other Death Notes as well, memories of all the Death Notes involved will return. The memories will return just by touching the Death Note, even without obtaining ownership of it. This can be done up to six times per Death Note. Any time more than that, the person's memory of the Death Note will not return, and they will have to use it without any previous memory of it.

X.   Even if you do not actually possess the Death Note, you may still use it to full effect.

XI.   You may lend the Death Note to another person while maintaining its ownership. The borrower may lend it to yet another person as well.

XII.   The person who borrows the Death Note will not be followed by a Shinigami. The Shinigami always remains with the owner of the Death Note. Also, the borrower cannot trade for the Shinigami Eyes.

XIII.   Only by touching each other's Death Notes can owners recognize the appearance or voice of each other's Shinigami.

XIV.   Losing memory of the Death Note by passing the ownership to another or by abandoning ownership will only occur when someone is actually killed using that Death Note. You will not lose memory of the Death Note if, for example, you merely owned it and did not write down anyone's name. In this case, you will not be able to hear or see the Shinigami anymore. You will also lose the power of the Shinigami Eyes if you made the trade.

XV.   Someone possessing more than one Death Note may write down a victim's name in one of the Death Notes and the cause of death in the other, and the death will still occur. The order of writing, however, is unimportant: if you write down the cause of death in one Death Note and afterward write the name in the other, the death will occur. This can be accomplished by two Death Note owners working together. In this case, it's necessary that the two touch each other's Death Notes.

XVI.   Only six Death Notes are allowed to exist at a time in the human world. Of course, the Death Notes that the Shinigami own do not count. This means only six Shinigami that have passed on their Death Notes to humans can be in the human world at once.

XVII.   One Shinigami is allowed to pass on Death Notes to only three humans at a time. However, it is possible for a single Shinigami to hand out up to six Death Notes - by handing three humans two Death Notes each, for example. In other words, one human could potentially own all six Death Notes.

XVIII.   In the event that there are more than six Death Notes in the human world, only the first six Death Notes that have been delivered to humans will have effect. The seventh Death Note will not become active until one of the other six Death Notes is destroyed or a Shinigami takes one of them back to the Shinigami realm.

A little extra - Shinigami Eyes

A human who becomes the owner of a Death Note can, in exchange for half of his or her remaining life, acquire the power of the Shinigami Eyes, which will enable him or her to see a human's name and remaining life span when looking at them.

An individual with Shinigami Eyes can see the name and lifespan of another human by looking at that person's face. By gaining ownership of a Death Note, an individual not only gains the ability to kill but also stops being a victim. From this point on, a person with a Death Note cannot see the life span of other Death Note owners, including him or herself.

In order to see the names and life spans of humans using the power of the Shinigami Eyes, the owner must be able to see more than half of that person's face. When looking from top to bottom, he must be able to see at least from the head to the nose. If he looks at only the eyes and under, he will not be able to see the person's name and lifespan. Also, even though some parts of the face - for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth - are hidden, if he can basically see the whole face, he will be able to see the person's name and lifespan.

It is still not clear how much exposure is needed to see a name and life span (more research needs to be done). If the above conditions are met, names and life spans can be seen using photos and digital images, no matter how old they are. But this is sometimes affected by the resolution and size of the image. Also, names and life spans cannot be seen using drawings, however realistic they may be.

Those with Shinigami Eyes will have eyesight of over 3.6 in the human measurement, regardless of their original eyesight.

If you have traded for the Shinigami Eyes, you will see a person's primary life span in the human world.

The names you will see with the Shinigami Eyes are the names needed to kill that person. You will be able to see a name even if it isn't officially registered anywhere.

Humans who have traded for Shinigami Eyes cannot see the names or life spans of humans who have already passed away (by looking at photos of them, for example).

The use of the Death Note in the human world sometimes affects other humans' lives or shortens their original life spans, even if their names are not actually written in the notebook itself. In these cases, no matter the cause, the Shinigami sees only the original lifespan and not the shortened lifespan.

No matter what medical or scientific method is employed, it is impossible for humans to distinguish whether or not a human has Shinigami Eyes. Even Shinigami cannot distinguish this fact, except for the very Shinigami that traded his or her eye power with that human.

If you have traded for the Shinigami Eyes, you will lose that power as well as the memories of the Death Note once you lose ownership of the note. Moreover, the half of your life you traded away will not be restored.