Dealing with a real Death Note

[Rev. Rye]

Is it the book, or the guy or the book/guy linked? How many people die when he writes a generic "John Smith"? Does the guy have to know the person or give specific details? If he writes "Bessie the Cow" will a cow die or will cows plus any human Bessie's that have been called cows die?

Maybe I'm over thinking this, but testing, testing, testing!

In the show, you have to know the person's face and name, which will cause the person in question, and not others with the same name, to die. At one point, L met Light and gives a fake name which is the same as a celebrity Light is a fan of. He does not take the bait because he knows if he writes the name down, he'll picture the pop star and kill him instead of L.

Rules for the Death Note:

The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

If we're going to be talking about the possibility of a real Death Note, it's probably necessary we keep the rules for such a thing in mind.