recaptcha + phpbb

I'm having trouble adding ReCAPTCHA to my phpBB 2.0.21 install. When I attempt to apply the patch via SSH ("patch -b usercp_register.php < /path/to/usercp_register.patch" as instructed in the link above) I get a "Permission Denied" error. I've got the patch file in the includes directory but it doesn't seem to matter where I put it (changing the path accordingly, of course.) I'm assuming there's a way around this that doesn't involve being root?

Any advice?
Thanks Very Much

Note: the answer may be totally obvious. If so, I apologize. I have the flu and my head is swimming, but we're being inundated with spam accounts right now.

You probably need to make sure you have write permissions for the folder in question, although I cannot imagine why you wouldn't. [more information]

In reply to:

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You probably need to make sure you have write permissions for the folder in question

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Hiya, thanks. Yeah I do have write permissions. No problem uploading to the includes directory or editing files in situ and just for kicks I made the whole shebang (temporarily!) 777 just now and no difference.