I've been having problems with folder permissions on ubuntu, oddly enough, trying chmod 777 on stuff wasn't really working well, basically I just did gksu nautilus then I modeled the "permissions" tab to the same as a folder I wanted permissions to be the same as. Apply to all files/folders within and viola it worked.
Hope that helps others.
Originally found the command from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1086624 although I have heard of it before, just haven't used it much.
