Ownership of files and directories on Unix determines which user on the system owns the file or directory. A file or directory is owned by a particular user on the system, usually the user that created it. When you log in through FTP and upload files, you are the files' owner. If you are the owner, it allows you and only you to change permissions of those files and directories. You can change the ownership to someone else as well, although you wouldn't normally want to do this. Once changed, you don't own the file, and you can't change the ownership back unless the new owner does it for you.
Sometimes problems can occur because the ownership of files gets messed up. This is usually a result of a system administrator's mistake. Anyone with "root" privileges can do whatever they want, including changing file ownership.
To see who has ownership of files and directories, you need an FTP program that gives a full directory listing (such as "Dir Info" in WS_FTP LE). Or, from a command-line FTP program, like in DOS or on Unix, type "ls -l" to display a full directory listing.
This list looks something like this:
drwxr-xr-x 2 username user 512 Apr 22 1998 images-rw-r--r-- 1 username user 1243 Jun 22 1998 index.html| | | | | | || | | | | | |> File/directory name| | | | | |> Last Modified date| | | | |> File size| | | |> Group| | |> Owner| |> Link count (Don't worry about it.)|> Permissions settings (The "d" as the first letter means it's a directory. An "l" would means it's a link or alias.)If your username shows as the Owner, then you own the file or directory. You can change permissions or transfer ownership of it. If you are not the owner, and should be, then you'll have to write to the webmaster to get it fixed.