weird cgi problem w/ apache

[nephish]

 Hello all.
i have a strange problem with some python cgi scripts.
the deal is.....
i keep loosing permission to write to a file created by a cgi script.
the file is created in a directory created by a python script. but
after the file is created by the cgi script,
another script in the same folder cannot open it to write to. think
that its a permissions issue.
the thing is, all of it works on my Arch linux computer,
but it doesn't work on my Ubuntu computer.
same folders, same everything (except http.conf) because debian sets up
its modules differently.
how come it will create the directory, create the files, but not let me
go back into the file to edit?
any suggestions? what could be different? from one computer to the next?