digital video theft, said it had received $16 million from

several investors, including network equipment maker CISCO

SYSTEMS INC. The privately held company`s encryption technology

scrambles digital video signals as they leave a service

provider`s main office, and decrypts them once they enter

consumers` homes via television set-top boxes. ``This gives

Cisco pretty much a ground-floor opportunity to use Widevine`s

technology in some of their future home devices,`` said Vamsi

Sistla, an analyst at ABI Research in New York. Cisco, which

bought television set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta for

about $7 billion earlier this year, is building its presence in

the digital video market through other acquisitions and

investments. ``Clearly they recognize that content security is

an incredibly valuable and necessary component in that video

offering,`` said Brian Baker, Widevine`s chief executive. One of

the chief obstacles to digitally distributed programming is

piracy. Some movie, music and TV copyright owners have tread

cautiously into digitally distributing their works over fears

that it could be easily ripped off and shared on the Internet.

Canadian telecoms company TELUS also invested in Widevine.