Ok, i've just tried with release 1.5.2 and it's the same...
Here is a transcript snippet:
Connection : 3
220 ProFTPD 1.3.0 Server (Serveur FTP de Sound Designers Org) [213.251.170.192]
USER ovh
331 Password required for ovh.
PASS ******
230 User ovh logged in.
SYST
215 UNIX Type: L8
CWD /www
250 CWD command successful
PWD
257 "/www" is current directory.
TYPE A
200 Type set to A
PASV
227 Entering Passive Mode (213,251,170,192,237,205).
LIST -la
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
drwxr-xr-x 32 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 27 18:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 31 10:51 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 0 Apr 1 2006 .localized
drwxr-xr-x 17 ovh ovh 4096 Sep 20 23:18 FlashChat
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 3724 Apr 1 2006 admin.php
drwxrwxrwx 38 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 31 21:23 albums
drwxr-xr-x 2 ovh ovh 4096 Mar 30 2006 awstats
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 5892 Jun 15 13:38 backend.php
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Apr 14 2006 backend2.php -> backend.php
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 16610 Apr 1 2006 banners.php
drwxr-xr-x 3 ovh ovh 4096 Apr 8 2006 classes
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 3539 Apr 1 2006 config.php
drwxr-xr-x 2 ovh ovh 4096 Sep 7 19:55 css
drwxr-xr-x 3 ovh ovh 4096 Apr 13 2006 downloads
drwxr-xr-x 2 ovh ovh 4096 Sep 7 19:55 error
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 3819 Apr 1 2006 error.php
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 1406 Apr 1 2006 favicon-old.ico
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 1150 Jul 3 19:30 favicon.ico
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 3402 Apr 1 2006 footer.php
drwxr-xr-x 22 ovh ovh 4096 Mar 30 2006 gallery
drwxr-xr-x 9 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 6 15:56 gallery2
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 5137 Apr 1 2006 header.php
drwxr-xr-x 9 ovh ovh 4096 Apr 9 2006 icon
drwxr-xr-x 18 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 31 11:26 images
drwxr-xr-x 7 ovh ovh 4096 Mar 30 2006 includes
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 591 Apr 1 2006 index-offline.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 4512 Apr 1 2006 index.php
drwxr-xr-x 5 ovh ovh 4096 Mar 30 2006 javascript
drwxr-xr-x 17 ovh ovh 4096 Sep 7 19:53 jinzora
drwxr-xr-x 2 ovh ovh 4096 Apr 8 2006 js
drwxr-xr-x 4 ovh ovh 4096 Mar 30 2006 language
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 1401 Apr 1 2006 mainfile.php
drwxr-xr-x 68 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 31 13:06 modules
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 381 Apr 1 2006 modules.php
drwxr-xr-x 13 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 20 13:32 newsdo
drwxr-xr-x 13 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 15 17:47 newsdo2
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 1243 Mar 31 2006 newsfeed.php
lrwxrwxrwx 1 ovh ovh 30 Jul 17 17:11 phpMyAdmin -> /home/ovh/www/phpMyAdmin-2.8.2
drwxr-xr-x 9 ovh ovh 4096 Jul 17 17:31 phpMyAdmin-2.8.2
drwxr-xr-x 10 ovh ovh 4096 Sep 20 19:33 phpMyAdmin-2.9.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 67 Apr 1 2006 phpinfo.php
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 3455 Apr 1 2006 pn7config.php
drwxr-xr-x 3 ovh ovh 4096 Mar 30 2006 pnGuide
drwxrwxrwx 10 ovh ovh 4096 Mar 30 2006 pnTemp
drwxr-xr-x 12 ovh ovh 4096 Mar 30 2006 pnadodb
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 45097 Apr 1 2006 pntables.php
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 10743 Apr 1 2006 print.php
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 4532 Apr 1 2006 referer.php
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 276 Apr 1 2006 robots.txt
drwxr-xr-x 8 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 8 11:47 roundcubemail
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 4096 Oct 31 03:04 squid-reports
drwxr-xr-x 14 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 20 10:00 themes
drwxr-xr-x 2 ovh ovh 4096 May 16 07:28 uploads
-rw-r--r-- 1 ovh ovh 3664 Apr 1 2006 user.php
drwxr-xr-x 2 ovh ovh 4096 Oct 20 12:35 webalizer
lrwxrwxrwx 1 ovh ovh 15 Oct 8 11:27 webmail -> ./roundcubemail
226 Transfer complete.
CWD /www
SITE CHMOD 666 favicon-old.ico
550 favicon-old.ico: Permission denied
NOOP
200 NOOP command successful
In this example, i've just tried to put write permissions on the favicon-old.ico (666 instead of 644), to no avail... 550 permission denied, nothing more... Command-I, than click on the write buttons, apply to "files", not recursive.
Bye.