install -d sometimes fails

[address@hidden]

Some makefiles (like the one from gtk-gnutella-0.93.4 
gtk-gnutella.sf.net) cause messages like these when i run "make install" 
as non-root:

/usr/bin/install -d /usr/local/share
/usr/bin/install: cannot change permissions of `/usr/local/share': 
Operation not permitted
make[2]: *** [install-data-yes] Error 1

On my box, the /usr/local hierarchy is already writeable by my usual 
user account. IMHO, if a directory is already present and writeable, 
"install" should not try to change permissions (or at least it shouldn't 
stop the "make"-process). I'm using GNU install 5.0 from Debian.

rgds